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For months, threatening messages recurred. At first, supposedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. In the end, one resident claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is exceptional in the world," states the protester. "But the plan aims to dismantle our community and prevent our protests."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are built haphazardly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

Among some individuals, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

But others, including this protester, are fighting against the project.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this project – lacking community input – could potentially transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, forcing out the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, displaced people who established the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of community resilience and commercial output, whose economic value is valued at between $1m and two million dollars annually, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly 1 million people living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, a minority will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is projected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. The remainder will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially divide a long-established social network. A portion will receive no housing at all.

Those allowed to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Businesses from tailoring to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to live in this community, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-floor workshop makes garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in high-end shops in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives dwells in the rooms underneath and employees and sewers – laborers from other states – also sleep there, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, accommodation prices are typically tenfold as high for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings close by, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different vision for the future. Well-groomed inhabitants move around on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring international bread and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio near a restaurant and treat station. This depicts a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar first meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This represents no improvement for us," says the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by an influential industrialist – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the government head – the conglomerate has faced accusations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it disputes.

While administrative bodies calls it a partnership, the developer contributed $950m for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings stating that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the development, local opponents claim they have been faced an extended period of coercion and warning – including messages, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they allege represent the developer.

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