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For months, threatening phone calls continued. Initially, reportedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, subsequently from law enforcement directly. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of the slum is unparalleled in the world," explains the protester. "Yet the plan aims to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the area. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, modern retail complexes and apartments with multiple bathrooms is an optimistic future realized.

"We lack sufficient health services, proper streets or water management and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," says A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The single option is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, consistently overlooked as an illegal encroachment, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. But they fear that this project – without resident participation – could potentially transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be transferred to wastelands and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to divide a generations-old neighborhood. Some will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the area will be given apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from tailoring to pottery and material recovery are projected to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "industrial sector" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to call home Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor facility makes leather coats – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

Relatives lives in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from north India – also sleep in the same building, allowing him to afford their labour. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed inhabitants move around on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baguettes and pastries and having coffee on an outdoor area near a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," states the protester. "It's an enormous land development that will price people out for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the corporate group. Run by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it rejects.

Although local authorities describes it as a joint project, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the redevelopment, local opponents claim they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – comprising messages, explicit warnings and insinuations that criticizing the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by people they assert work for the corporate group.

Included in these suspected of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c