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Across several weeks, threatening messages recurred. Originally, supposedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: remain silent or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is among those opposing a high-value project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the planet," says the resident. "Yet they want to eradicate our way of life and silence our voices."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community present a dramatic difference to the towering buildings and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are constructed informally and typically without proper sanitation, small-scale operations release harmful emissions and the air is permeated by the unpleasant stench of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with proper sanitation is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or water management and there are no spaces for youth to recreate," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The only way is to clear the area and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, such as this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this project – absent of resident participation – might transform valuable urban land into an elite enclave, displacing the marginalized, migrant communities who have been there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose production is valued at between a significant amount and $2m annually, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately 1 million residents living in the packed sprawling area, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take seven years to finish. Additional residents will be moved to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the remote edges of the metropolis, threatening to fragment a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will receive no residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be given units in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Commercial activities from tailoring to clay work and material recovery are expected to reduce in scale and be relocated to a designated "commercial zone" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of this protester, a leather artisan and long-time resident to call home the slum, the plan presents a survival challenge. His informal, three-floor operation produces leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives lives in the rooms underneath and employees and sewers – workers from other states – also sleep on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Away from the slum, housing costs are frequently 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

Within the official facilities nearby, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan depicts a very different perspective. Slickly dressed people move around on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, buying western-style bread and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace near a restaurant and dessert parlor. This represents a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This represents no improvement for us," says Shaikh. "This constitutes a massive land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

There is also concern of the business conglomerate. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A case alleging that the initiative was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – including messages, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by people they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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