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For months, threatening communications continued. Initially, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," says Shaikh. "Yet they want to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and we have no places for children to play," states a tea vendor, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they fear that this project – without resident participation – is one that will turn premium city property into an elite enclave, forcing out the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, migrant workers who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately one million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare area, a minority will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is projected to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, potentially break up a historic community. A portion will be denied housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the area will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained the community for so long.

Industries from tailoring to clay work and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to call home this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level operation makes leather coats – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and abroad.

His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and his workers and sewers – migrants from different regions – also sleep in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Away from the slum, accommodation prices are typically significantly costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the official facilities close by, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no improvement for our community," says the artisan. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will price people out for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although the state government labels it a joint project, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by people they claim work for the developer.

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