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Over an extended period, threatening messages recurred. Initially, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident claims he was called to the police station and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is part of a group fighting a expensive project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," states the resident. "However the plan aims to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of the slum stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the air is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for children to play," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, such as Shaikh, are resisting the plan.

None deny that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they fear that this plan – lacking resident participation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have resided there since the nineteenth century.

It was these excluded, displaced people who built up the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is estimated at between one million dollars and $2m per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million residents living in the crowded 220-hectare area, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to wastelands and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially fragment a historic social network. Some will receive no homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the area will be allocated units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has sustained this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to a designated "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a craftsman and long-time resident to reside in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor facility makes apparel – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family lives in the accommodations below and his workers and sewers – migrants from other states – live there, allowing him to sustain operations. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are typically significantly costlier for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

In the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan shows a very different vision for the future. Slickly dressed people move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing continental baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area adjacent to a coffee shop and dessert parlor. It is a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This is not improvement for us," states the artisan. "It represents an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the national leader – the corporation has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While administrative bodies describes it as a joint project, the business group contributed $950m for its 80% stake. A lawsuit claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is being considered in the top court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, local opponents state they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – comprising phone calls, clear intimidation and implications that criticizing the development was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

Part of the group alleged to have making intimidations is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c