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Across several weeks, intimidating messages recurred. Originally, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, one resident states he was called to the police station and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "But they want to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Dwellings are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are opposing the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they fear that this initiative – absent of community input – is one that will convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million inhabitants living in the crowded 220-hectare neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of the metropolis, potentially fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Certain individuals will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be given units in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a leather artisan and long-time of his family to reside in this community, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-floor operation makes leather coats – formal jackets, premium outerwear, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and overseas.

Relatives resides in the rooms below and employees and garment workers – laborers from north India – reside in the same building, permitting him to manage costs. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are frequently tenfold more expensive for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed people move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baked goods and croissants and socializing on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and treat station. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for our community," says the artisan. "It's a huge property transaction that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the business conglomerate. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a collaborative effort, the corporation contributed a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to vocally oppose the development, local opponents assert they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – involving communications, direct threats and implications that criticizing the initiative was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they assert work for the corporate group.

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