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Over an extended period, intimidating phone calls continued. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was called to the local precinct and told clearly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is part of a group resisting a high-value initiative where Dharavi – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – is scheduled to be razed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the planet," states Shaikh. "However their intention is to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the neighborhood. Dwellings are assembled randomly and typically lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or water management and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The single option is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, including the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this plan – without public consultation – could potentially transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the marginalized, immigrant populations who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who developed the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is estimated at between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it a major unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare zone, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to wastelands and saline fields on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a generations-old community. Some will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to continue living in the area will be provided apartments in high-rise buildings, a significant rupture from the evolved, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported this area for generations.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" distant from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as this protester, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey operation creates garments – tailored coats, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in south Mumbai and abroad.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and laborers and tailors – laborers from other states – also sleep there, enabling him to manage costs. Outside this community, housing costs are often 10 times as high for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows an alternative perspective. Well-groomed people mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing international baguettes and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This represents no progress for residents," states the artisan. "It's an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Although administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the developer invested a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members claim they have been faced an extended period of harassment and intimidation – including messages, explicit warnings and suggestions that criticizing the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by figures they allege represent the developer.

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