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Across several weeks, intimidating messages recurred. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, and then from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan states he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a expensive initiative where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be bulldozed and transformed by a corporate giant.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the globe," states the resident. "But they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

For certain residents, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for children to play," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, including the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – lacking community input – is one that will turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, relocated individuals who developed the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum annually, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately 1 million people living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the distant periphery of the city, potentially divide a historic community. A portion will not get housing at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the natural, communal way of living and working that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Commercial activities from clothing production to pottery and material recovery are expected to shrink in number and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" distant from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to call home Dharavi, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-storey workshop makes apparel – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – marketed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members resides in the spaces downstairs and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – also sleep on-site, permitting him to afford their labour. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are often tenfold as high for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings close by, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed people gather on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports Dharavi's community.

"This is not improvement for residents," says the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a close ally of the government head – the corporation has faced accusations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies describes it as a partnership, the corporation invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A case alleging that the project was improperly granted to the corporation is under review in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – including communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they allege work for the developer.

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