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For months, intimidating messages recurred. Originally, allegedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from the police themselves. In the end, a local artisan states he was called to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is part of a group resisting a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is unparalleled in the planet," states the resident. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The narrow alleys of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and elite residences that dominate the neighborhood. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is saturated with the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of premium apartments, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"There's no proper healthcare, paved pathways or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, fifty-six, who relocated from southern India in 1982. "The single option is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

However, some, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. But they worry that this initiative – without resident participation – could potentially turn valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

These were these excluded, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and two million dollars annually, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about 1 million residents living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to finish. The remainder will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to divide a generations-old social network. A portion will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a major break from the organic, shared lifestyle of living and working that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and long-time resident to reside in the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, multi-level workshop creates leather coats – formal jackets, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives lives in the accommodations underneath and laborers and sewers – workers from different regions – live in the same building, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond this community, accommodation prices are often significantly as high for a single room.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows a very different perspective. Fashionable people mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baguettes and pastries and enlisting beverages on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports Dharavi's community.

"This represents no progress for us," states the artisan. "It represents a massive land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also distrust of the business conglomerate. Run by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the government head – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While administrative bodies labels it a partnership, the corporation paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. A case alleging that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is being considered in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – comprising messages, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the development was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by figures they assert work for the developer.

Part of the group alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c