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For months, intimidating phone calls recurred. Originally, supposedly from a former police officer and a retired army general, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was called to law enforcement headquarters and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group fighting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of this area is unparalleled in the planet," explains the protester. "But they want to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the towering buildings and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the area. Homes are built haphazardly and often without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of the slum's redevelopment into a developed area of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and apartments with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"There's no sufficient health services, proper streets or drainage and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," explains a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from his home state in that period. "The sole solution is to clear the area and build us new homes."

Community Resistance

But others, such as the leather artisan, are resisting the project.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – lacking community input – might transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these shunned, displaced people who developed the vacant wetlands into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and two million dollars per year, making it one of the world's largest unregulated sectors.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about one million people living in the packed 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be able for replacement housing in the development, which is estimated to take an extended timeframe to complete. Others will be moved to wastelands and saline fields on the remote edges of Mumbai, potentially break up a generations-old social network. Some will be denied housing at all.

Those allowed to remain in the neighborhood will be allocated apartments in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the organic, communal way of residing and operating that has sustained the community for generations.

Industries from clothing production to ceramic crafts and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" far from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

In the case of Shaikh, a craftsman and multi-generational resident to reside in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, three-floor workshop produces leather coats – sharp blazers, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family lives in the spaces below and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – live on-site, enabling him to afford their labour. Away from this community, housing costs are frequently tenfold as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

In the official facilities nearby, a visual representation of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting perspective. Well-groomed people gather on cycles and e-vehicles, buying continental bread and breakfast items and socializing on a patio adjacent to a restaurant and Ice-Cream. This depicts a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that sustains the neighborhood.

"This represents no progress for residents," says the protester. "This constitutes an enormous real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for residents to remain."

There is also concern of the development company. Headed by a prominent businessman – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the business group paid $950m for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings alleging that the redevelopment was questionably assigned to the business group is pending in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including messages, direct threats and implications that speaking against the development was comparable with speaking against the country – by people they claim represent the developer.

Included in these accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c