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Across several weeks, intimidating messages persisted. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the planet," states Shaikh. "But their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the vision of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future realized.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are fighting against the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they worry that this project – lacking resident participation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the marginalized, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it a major informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Of the roughly a million residents living in the crowded sprawling neighborhood, a minority will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be moved to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, risking divide a long-established social network. Certain individuals will not get homes at all.

People eligible to stay in Dharavi will be allocated apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, communal way of living and working that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Industries from garment work to clay work and waste processing are expected to reduce in scale and be moved to a designated "business area" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a workshop owner and third generation of his family to call home this community, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, multi-level workshop produces leather coats – tailored coats, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family lives in the spaces below and laborers and tailors – workers from other states – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Beyond this community, housing costs are frequently significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the government offices close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed residents gather on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international baguettes and croissants and having coffee on a patio outside a coffee shop and treat station. It is a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains local residents.

"This represents no progress for us," states Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Although local authorities labels it a collaborative effort, the business group invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the developer is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, local opponents claim they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – including communications, direct threats and implications that speaking against the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they claim 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