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Across several weeks, threatening messages persisted. Originally, reportedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was called to the police station and told clearly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many resisting a high-value project where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be razed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is exceptional in the world," explains Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the settlement. Residences are built haphazardly and often without proper sanitation, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or water management and we have no places for youth to recreate," states a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

None deny that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they fear that this plan – absent of community input – could potentially turn valuable urban land into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

These were these marginalized, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose economic value is worth between a significant amount and two million dollars per year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million residents living in the dense 220-hectare zone, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the project, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be transferred to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking fragment a long-established social network. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in the neighborhood will be given units in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the natural, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Industries from garment work to clay work and recycling are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational of his family to call home this community, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level workshop produces garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family dwells in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – migrants from other states – reside in the same building, enabling him to manage costs. Outside Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often 10 times costlier for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the government offices in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project illustrates a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed people mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, acquiring international baked goods and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and dessert parlor. This depicts a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports local residents.

"This represents no improvement for us," states the artisan. "It's an enormous property transaction that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the development company. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Although local authorities describes it as a partnership, the developer invested a significant amount for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced a long-running campaign of harassment and intimidation – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that opposing the development was tantamount to opposing national interests – by figures they claim are associated with the developer.

Part of the group accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c