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For months, threatening phone calls recurred. At first, supposedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan claims he was summoned to the local precinct and told clearly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a high-value initiative where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – is scheduled to be demolished and redeveloped by a corporate giant.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the world," says the protester. "But their intention is to destroy our social fabric and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of the slum sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Dwellings are assembled randomly and often lacking adequate facilities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future come true.

"We lack proper healthcare, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for children to play," says a tea vendor, fifty-six, who relocated from his home state in that period. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Resident Opposition

However, some, including the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

Everyone acknowledges that this community, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they worry that this project – without community input – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, displacing the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have been there since the nineteenth century.

This involved these excluded, migrant workers who developed the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose economic value is valued at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer zone, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be relocated to barren areas and saline fields on the distant periphery of Mumbai, threatening to break up a generations-old social network. Some will not get homes at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in multi-story structures, a significant rupture from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained this area for generations.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and recycling are expected to shrink in number and be transferred to a designated "industrial sector" separated from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of this protester, a leather artisan and multi-generational resident to call home the slum, the project presents an existential threat. His informal, three-storey operation produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family resides in the accommodations downstairs and laborers and tailors – migrants from different regions – reside on-site, allowing him to sustain operations. Outside the slum, housing costs are frequently tenfold more expensive for basic accommodation.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative perspective. Well-groomed inhabitants gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, acquiring international bread and croissants and having coffee on an outdoor area near a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't improvement for us," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it disputes.

Even as the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the developer paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. A lawsuit alleging that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been experienced a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving messages, direct threats and implications that opposing the initiative was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they claim are associated with the corporate group.

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