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For months, coercive communications persisted. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, later from the police themselves. Finally, one resident states he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or experience severe repercussions.

The leather artisan is part of a group resisting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of this area is like nowhere else in the world," says Shaikh. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and often lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and we have no places for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, 56, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

However, some, like the leather artisan, are fighting against the redevelopment.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this plan – without public consultation – could potentially convert premium city property into a playground for the rich, forcing out the marginalized, immigrant populations who have been there since generations ago.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and commercial output, whose output is valued at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it a major unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Out of about a million people living in the packed sprawling zone, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the redevelopment, which is expected to take seven years to complete. Others will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, risking divide a historic community. Some will receive no housing at all.

Residents permitted to remain in the neighborhood will be provided units in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained the community for so long.

Businesses from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be relocated to a designated "business area" distant from homes.

Survival Challenge

For residents like this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to call home the slum, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His informal, three-storey operation produces leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family dwells in the rooms below and employees and sewers – migrants from north India – also sleep there, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are typically tenfold more expensive for a single room.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the Dharavi project shows a contrasting perspective. Fashionable inhabitants move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baguettes and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area near a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not development for us," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes an enormous property transaction that will render it impossible for us to survive."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of favoritism and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Even as administrative bodies labels it a partnership, the corporation paid $950m for its majority share. Legal proceedings stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and suggestions that criticizing the project was comparable with speaking against the country – by figures they claim represent the business conglomerate.

Among those accused of issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c