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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls continued. Originally, allegedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was called to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the world," states the protester. "Yet their intention is to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have sufficient health services, roads or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

However, some, including this protester, are resisting the project.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this plan – absent of public consultation – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose output is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be able for alternative accommodation in the project, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be transferred to barren areas and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, threatening to fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Some will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the area will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "business area" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to call home the slum, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level facility produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – distributed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

Household members resides in the spaces below and laborers and garment workers – laborers from different regions – reside there, enabling him to afford their labour. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are frequently tenfold costlier for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices close by, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a patio near a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This represents no development for residents," says the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Even as the state government calls it a joint project, the corporation paid $950m for its controlling interest. A case claiming that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is under review in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

Since they began to publicly resist the development, local opponents claim they have been faced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving communications, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they claim are associated with the corporate group.

Included in these alleged to have delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c