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For months, intimidating communications recurred. Originally, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, and then from the police themselves. Finally, a local artisan claims he was ordered to law enforcement headquarters and warned explicitly: keep quiet or encounter real trouble.

This third-generation resident is part of a group fighting a multimillion-dollar project where one of India's largest slums – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces demolished and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is like nowhere else in the world," says the resident. "Yet they want to eradicate our community and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The cramped lanes of this community sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and Bollywood penthouses that overshadow the settlement. Homes are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, small-scale operations produce dangerous fumes and the atmosphere is filled with the overpowering odor of open sewers.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and apartments with two toilets is a hopeful vision achieved.

"We don't have proper healthcare, proper streets or drainage and we have no places for children to play," explains A Selvin Nadar, 56, who migrated from southern India in the early eighties. "The only way is to tear it all down and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, like the leather artisan, are fighting against the plan.

All recognize that this community, consistently overlooked as informal housing, is in stark need economic input and modernization. However they fear that this plan – without community input – could potentially convert valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, migrant communities who have resided there since generations ago.

These were these marginalized, displaced people who built up the uninhabited area into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between $1m and $2m annually, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Displacement Concerns

Among approximately one million people living in the crowded 220-hectare area, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is estimated to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to wastelands and salt plains on the distant periphery of the metropolis, risking break up a long-established social network. Certain individuals will not get residences at all.

Those allowed to stay in the neighborhood will be provided flats in high-rise buildings, a major break from the organic, collective approach of residing and operating that has supported Dharavi for many years.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and waste processing are likely to reduce in scale and be relocated to an allocated "business area" far from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and long-time of his family to call home Dharavi, the project presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor facility creates garments – formal jackets, premium outerwear, fashionable garments – sold in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and overseas.

His family dwells in the accommodations downstairs and employees and tailors – workers from different regions – live in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Beyond the slum, accommodation prices are frequently tenfold as high for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the official facilities nearby, an illustrated mock-up of the transformation initiative shows an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed residents move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, buying international bread and croissants and socializing on an outdoor area near a restaurant and dessert parlor. It is a stark contrast from the 20-rupee idli sambar morning meal and budget beverage that supports Dharavi's community.

"This isn't development for residents," explains Shaikh. "This constitutes a huge land development that will make it unaffordable for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the business group has faced accusations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it denies.

Although administrative bodies calls it a joint project, the corporation paid a significant amount for its 80% stake. A case claiming that the initiative was improperly granted to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

From when they initiated to vocally oppose the project, protesters and community members claim they have been experienced an extended period of coercion and warning – involving communications, clear intimidation and suggestions that speaking against the initiative was comparable with opposing national interests – by people they assert represent the business conglomerate.

Included in these alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c