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Across several weeks, coercive phone calls continued. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is among those resisting a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "But they want to eradicate our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and elite residences that dominate the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is an aspirational dream come true.

"There's no sufficient health services, paved pathways or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. However they worry that this initiative – absent of community input – could potentially convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

This involved these shunned, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million residents living in the dense sprawling area, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be transferred to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of the metropolis, potentially break up a historic community. Some will not get homes at all.

Those allowed to stay in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the natural, communal way of living and working that has sustained this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For those such as the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor operation produces apparel – formal jackets, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members dwells in the rooms underneath and employees and garment workers – laborers from other states – also sleep on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Outside this community, housing costs are frequently significantly more expensive for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the administrative buildings close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed people move around on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, buying international bread and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This isn't progress for residents," explains the artisan. "It represents a massive property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While local authorities calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to actively protest the project, protesters and community members assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, clear intimidation and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege are associated with the business conglomerate.

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