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Over an extended period, intimidating communications persisted. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, and then from the authorities. Finally, a local artisan states he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be demolished and transformed by a large business group.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says the resident. "However the plan aims to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the settlement. Residences are assembled randomly and typically without proper sanitation, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and residences with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"There's no proper healthcare, roads or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, 56, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

However, some, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the redevelopment.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this project – lacking public consultation – could potentially convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since generations ago.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million residents living in the packed sprawling zone, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take seven years to complete. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, threatening to divide a long-established social network. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained the community for many years.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and recycling are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to a designated "industrial sector" far from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to live in this community, the plan presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey operation produces apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and sewers – migrants from other states – reside there, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often tenfold costlier for a single room.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative depicts an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed residents gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying continental baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a patio near a coffee shop and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This is not progress for residents," explains Shaikh. "It represents a massive property transaction that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the corporation paid a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is under review in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the development, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been faced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – involving communications, clear intimidation and implications that opposing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they assert are associated with the corporate group.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c