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Across several weeks, threatening messages continued. Originally, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was summoned to the local precinct and warned explicitly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is part of a group fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says the protester. "However their intention is to eradicate our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and residences with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, 56, who relocated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

But others, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they are concerned that this plan – without resident participation – might convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

These were these excluded, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and $2m a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly one million residents living in the crowded sprawling area, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is projected to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and coastal regions on the remote edges of the city, threatening to break up a generations-old neighborhood. Some will not get residences at all.

Those allowed to remain in Dharavi will be provided units in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for many years.

Businesses from clothing production to pottery and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a designated "industrial sector" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

For those such as Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to live in Dharavi, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level workshop makes garments – formal jackets, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the rooms downstairs and employees and tailors – workers from north India – reside there, enabling him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, housing costs are typically significantly costlier for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

In the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows a very different perspective. Well-groomed residents mill about on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying international baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a terrace near a restaurant and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for our community," says the protester. "This constitutes a massive land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a supporter of the government head – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as the state government describes it as a joint project, the developer contributed a significant amount for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving messages, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they allege are associated with the corporate group.

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