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Across several weeks, threatening phone calls persisted. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, subsequently from the police themselves. Finally, one resident states he was called to the local precinct and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is one of many fighting a high-value project where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of this area is exceptional in the globe," explains the resident. "But their intention is to dismantle our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and elite residences that overshadow the area. Residences are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and apartments with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We lack adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or sewage systems and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

But others, such as this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that the slum, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. However they worry that this plan – lacking community input – might transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, forcing out the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since the late 1800s.

These were these shunned, migrant workers who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and $2m annually, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million people living in the dense 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be transferred to barren areas and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to break up a long-established community. Certain individuals will receive no homes at all.

People eligible to remain in the neighborhood will be given flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the natural, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Industries from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a leather artisan and third generation resident to reside in the slum, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey workshop makes leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – sold in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family dwells in the rooms downstairs and laborers and tailors – workers from other states – reside there, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are typically significantly costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings close by, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio adjacent to Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains local residents.

"This represents no progress for us," explains the protester. "This constitutes a huge land development that will price people out for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the development company. Run by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Even as local authorities labels it a joint project, the corporation invested $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit alleging that the project was questionably assigned to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, local opponents claim they have been faced an extended period of pressure and threats – involving communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the initiative was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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