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Across several weeks, intimidating messages continued. Originally, reportedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the authorities. Finally, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a high-value project where this historic settlement – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces demolished and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is like nowhere else in the globe," states the protester. "Yet the plan aims to destroy our way of life and silence our voices."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of this community present a dramatic difference to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and typically missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the suffocating smell of open sewers.

To some, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, proper streets or sewage systems and we have no places for youth to recreate," states a chai seller, fifty-six, who moved from Tamil Nadu in the early eighties. "The only way is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Local Protest

However, some, like this protester, are fighting against the redevelopment.

None deny that the slum, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. But they are concerned that this plan – without community input – might turn premium city property into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

This involved these marginalized, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of community resilience and commercial output, whose output is estimated at between a significant amount and $2m annually, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million people living in the dense 2.2 square kilometer area, less than 50% will be able for new homes in the development, which is estimated to take seven years to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the remote edges of Mumbai, threatening to fragment a long-established community. A portion will not get residences at all.

People eligible to stay in the area will be provided apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the organic, shared lifestyle of residing and operating that has supported this area for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to shrink in number and be relocated to an allocated "commercial zone" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and multi-generational of his family to live in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey facility creates garments – tailored coats, suede trenches, studded bomber jackets – distributed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

Relatives dwells in the accommodations underneath and laborers and sewers – laborers from other states – also sleep on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Away from this community, Mumbai rents are often 10 times more expensive for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

At the official facilities in the vicinity, an illustrated mock-up of the Dharavi project depicts an alternative vision for the future. Well-groomed residents gather on bicycles and electric vehicles, buying western-style baked goods and breakfast items and socializing on a patio near Dharavi Cafe and treat station. It is a complete departure from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains local residents.

"This is not progress for residents," explains Shaikh. "It represents a massive real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the development company. Run by a prominent businessman – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the government head – the corporation has faced accusations of crony capitalism and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Even as local authorities calls it a partnership, the developer paid a significant amount for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the project was improperly granted to the business group is being considered in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the project, protesters and community members state they have been faced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and implications that speaking against the project was tantamount to opposing national interests – by individuals they allege 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