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Over an extended period, threatening communications recurred. Originally, reportedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from the authorities. Finally, one resident asserts he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a high-value initiative where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," states Shaikh. "Yet they want to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Residences are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," explains a tea vendor, fifty-six, who migrated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and construct proper housing."

Local Protest

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

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this plan – absent of resident participation – might turn premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have been there since the nineteenth century.

It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who built up the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and commercial output, whose output is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer neighborhood, a minority will be able for alternative accommodation in the development, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the distant periphery of Mumbai, risking break up a long-established community. Certain individuals will be denied housing at all.

Those allowed to stay in Dharavi will be allocated units in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained the community for many years.

Industries from tailoring to ceramic crafts and recycling are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the plan presents an existential threat. His informal, three-storey facility produces leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – distributed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family lives in the accommodations underneath and employees and tailors – migrants from north India – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Outside this community, accommodation prices are often significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the government offices in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project illustrates an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed people gather on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that sustains local residents.

"This isn't improvement for us," says Shaikh. "It represents an enormous land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Additionally, there exists distrust of the corporate group. Run by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the national leader – the corporation has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

Although administrative bodies calls it a collaborative effort, the business group paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was improperly granted to the business group is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising communications, clear intimidation and insinuations that criticizing the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by figures they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

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