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For months, threatening messages continued. Originally, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan states he was called to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

This third-generation resident is one of many resisting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces demolished and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," explains the resident. "But they want to destroy our community and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and Bollywood penthouses that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and frequently lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the atmosphere is permeated by the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the promise of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, proper streets or water management and we have no places for children to play," explains a tea vendor, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Local Protest

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

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as informal housing, is in stark need investment and development. But they worry that this project – absent of community input – is one that will convert premium city property into an elite enclave, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who established the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of local enterprise and commercial output, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the dense 220-hectare area, a minority will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to finish. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and saline fields on the distant periphery of the city, threatening to fragment a historic neighborhood. Some will receive no housing at all.

Those allowed to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in high-rise buildings, a major break from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained this area for so long.

Industries from tailoring to pottery and waste processing are projected to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Survival Challenge

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational resident to reside in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor operation makes garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Relatives resides in the spaces downstairs and his workers and tailors – migrants from different regions – reside there, allowing him to manage costs. Beyond Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are typically significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

At the government offices in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the transformation initiative shows an alternative vision for the future. Slickly dressed inhabitants mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing western-style baguettes and breakfast items and having coffee on an outdoor area near Dharavi Cafe and Ice-Cream. This represents a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and low-cost tea that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no development for us," states Shaikh. "It represents a huge property transaction that will render it impossible for residents to remain."

Additionally, there exists skepticism of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has faced accusations of favoritism and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While the state government describes it as a partnership, the developer invested a significant amount for its controlling interest. A case stating that the redevelopment was improperly granted to the corporation is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the development, Shaikh and other residents claim they have been subjected to ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including communications, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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