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For months, threatening communications continued. Originally, reportedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is part of a group opposing a multimillion-dollar project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – is scheduled to be bulldozed and modernized by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that dominate the area. Residences are assembled randomly and typically missing basic amenities, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the air is saturated with the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes with two toilets is an aspirational dream come true.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," explains A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, including this protester, are resisting the plan.

None deny that this community, historically ignored as informal housing, is urgently needing investment and development. But they are concerned that this plan – lacking resident participation – is one that will transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

This involved these shunned, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer zone, a minority will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a historic social network. Some will be denied housing at all.

Those allowed to stay in the area will be given flats in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the evolved, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has maintained Dharavi for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to reside in this community, the plan presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level operation makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

Household members resides in the accommodations underneath and employees and tailors – laborers from other states – also sleep on-site, enabling him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often 10 times costlier for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

At the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan illustrates a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed residents gather on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baguettes and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This represents no improvement for residents," says Shaikh. "It's a massive land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the corporate group. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

Even as administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the corporation invested $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit stating that the project was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been subjected to an extended period of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, direct threats and implications that opposing the development was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they claim represent the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c