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Across several weeks, intimidating messages recurred. Originally, reportedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is among those resisting a expensive project where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – will be razed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of the slum is unparalleled in the world," states the protester. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of Dharavi stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Residences are assembled randomly and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the environment is permeated by the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with proper sanitation is an optimistic future come true.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or sewage systems and there are no spaces for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, in his fifties, who moved from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

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

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing economic input and modernization. However they are concerned that this initiative – absent of resident participation – might convert a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, forcing out the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since generations ago.

It was these excluded, displaced people who developed the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and commercial output, whose production is worth between $1m and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately a million inhabitants living in the crowded 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be able for new homes in the project, which is projected to take seven years to complete. Additional residents will be moved to wastelands and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a historic social network. A portion will not get housing at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a substantial change from the natural, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has sustained this area for so long.

Businesses from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" far from people's residences.

Survival Challenge

For those such as this protester, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, three-floor operation makes apparel – formal jackets, luxury coats, decorated jackets – sold in premium stores in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

His family lives in the accommodations downstairs and employees and garment workers – workers from other states – reside on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are typically significantly as high for minimal space.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative depicts a very different perspective. Slickly dressed inhabitants mill about on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and pastries and having coffee on a terrace near a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This depicts a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that supports the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for us," states the artisan. "This constitutes an enormous land development that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the business conglomerate. Managed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it denies.

Although the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group contributed a significant amount for its majority share. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the business group is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, direct threats and implications that criticizing the development was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they assert represent the business conglomerate.

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