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Across several weeks, threatening phone calls persisted. Initially, allegedly from a retired cop and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was called to the police station and told clearly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is part of a group resisting a expensive project where this historic settlement – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces demolished and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," says the resident. "But they want to eradicate our way of life and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of this community sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the settlement. Homes are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is saturated with the suffocating smell of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of high-end towers, neat parks, shiny shopping centers and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says a chai seller, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in that period. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

Everyone acknowledges that Dharavi, long neglected as informal housing, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. Yet they fear that this plan – lacking community input – could potentially convert premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the marginalized, migrant communities who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, relocated individuals who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and economic productivity, whose output is valued at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million people living in the dense sprawling zone, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is expected to take seven years to finish. The remainder will be moved to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the remote edges of the city, threatening to fragment a long-established social network. Some will receive no housing at all.

People eligible to remain in the area will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the evolved, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported this area for generations.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and material recovery are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational of his family to live in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents an existential threat. His makeshift, three-storey operation makes garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family lives in the rooms underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – also sleep in the same building, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from the slum, accommodation prices are frequently significantly costlier for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the government offices nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the redevelopment plan shows an alternative outlook. Well-groomed residents move around on bicycles and e-vehicles, purchasing western-style baguettes and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on a patio outside a coffee shop and Ice-Cream. This represents a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports local residents.

"This represents no improvement for residents," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge land development that will price people out for residents to remain."

There is also skepticism of the corporate group. Run by a prominent businessman – a leading figure and an associate of the government head – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of favoritism and questionable practices, which it denies.

While local authorities describes it as a joint project, the developer paid $950m for its 80% stake. Legal proceedings claiming that the project was questionably assigned to the corporation is being considered in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

From when they initiated to actively protest the development, protesters and community members claim they have been faced a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising communications, direct threats and insinuations that speaking against the project was tantamount to speaking against the country – by figures they allege represent the developer.

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