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For months, threatening communications continued. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, one resident asserts he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is among those resisting a high-value redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – will be bulldozed and transformed by a large business group.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," states the protester. "But they want to destroy our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The dank gullies of the slum present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the settlement. Residences are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is saturated with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision come true.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, paved pathways or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, 56, who migrated from southern India in 1982. "The only way is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as Shaikh, are fighting against the project.

Everyone acknowledges that the slum, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they fear that this initiative – lacking public consultation – could potentially transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

These were these excluded, displaced people who built up the vacant wetlands into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and economic productivity, whose production is valued at between $1m and $2m a year, making it a major informal economies.

Displacement Concerns

Of the roughly 1 million residents living in the dense sprawling area, fewer than half will be qualified for replacement housing in the development, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Others will be relocated to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to divide a long-established social network. Certain individuals will not get housing at all.

Residents permitted to stay in Dharavi will be provided units in tower blocks, a major break from the organic, collective approach of living and working that has maintained Dharavi for many years.

Industries from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "industrial sector" far from residential areas.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and third generation of his family to reside in this community, the plan presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-storey facility makes garments – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in premium stores in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Relatives lives in the rooms downstairs and laborers and garment workers – migrants from north India – reside on-site, permitting him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, accommodation prices are often significantly more expensive for basic accommodation.

Threats and Warning

At the government offices close by, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a very different perspective. Well-groomed people move around on cycles and electric vehicles, acquiring continental baguettes and breakfast items and socializing on an outdoor area adjacent to a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This represents no progress for residents," states Shaikh. "It's a massive real estate deal that will price people out for us to survive."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has encountered allegations of crony capitalism and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities describes it as a partnership, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit claiming that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to publicly resist the project, protesters and community members assert they have been experienced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, direct threats and insinuations that criticizing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by individuals they allege represent the corporate group.

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