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For months, threatening phone calls recurred. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, one resident states he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is among those fighting a expensive project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – will be demolished and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the planet," explains the resident. "But they want to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an optimistic future realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are resisting the plan.

None deny that the slum, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they fear that this plan – without community input – is one that will transform premium city property into an elite enclave, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly 1 million residents living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to finish. Others will be moved to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of the metropolis, potentially divide a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a specific "business area" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to live in this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level facility makes leather coats – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and internationally.

His family lives in the spaces downstairs and employees and sewers – laborers from north India – reside there, allowing him to afford their labour. Away from this community, housing costs are often significantly more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan depicts an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed residents move around on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baked goods and croissants and having coffee on a terrace outside a coffee shop and treat station. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for residents," says Shaikh. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the development company. Managed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities describes it as a joint project, the business group contributed $950m for its controlling interest. A case claiming that the project was improperly granted to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the redevelopment, protesters and community members assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that speaking against the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

Included in these accused of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c