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Across several weeks, coercive communications persisted. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, subsequently from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident claims he was called to the police station and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group resisting a high-value redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the globe," states the resident. "But their intention is to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the settlement. Homes are assembled randomly and frequently lacking adequate facilities, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the air is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, shiny shopping centers and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision achieved.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," says a chai seller, 56, who relocated from southern India in that period. "The single option is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, like this protester, are opposing the project.

All recognize that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is desperately requiring investment and development. However they fear that this initiative – absent of public consultation – is one that will transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, relocated individuals who established the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and economic productivity, whose production is worth between a significant amount and a substantial sum per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take seven years to complete. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to break up a generations-old social network. A portion will not get housing at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the area will be allocated units in tower blocks, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has maintained this area for generations.

Businesses from garment work to clay work and material recovery are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" separated from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like the leather artisan, a workshop owner and long-time resident to call home the slum, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His informal, multi-level facility produces leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and abroad.

His family dwells in the spaces downstairs and his workers and sewers – migrants from other states – live in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Beyond the slum, housing costs are often significantly more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the administrative buildings nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a contrasting perspective. Slickly dressed people mill about on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace near a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This is not improvement for us," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive land development that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a supporter of the government head – the conglomerate has faced accusations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as the state government calls it a partnership, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was questionably assigned to the developer is pending in India's supreme court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by people they assert are associated with the business conglomerate.

Part of the group accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c