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Across several weeks, coercive phone calls recurred. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and an ex-military commander, later from the authorities. Ultimately, a local artisan asserts he was ordered to the police station and warned explicitly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is part of a group opposing a expensive redevelopment plan where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces demolished and transformed by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of the slum is exceptional in the planet," says the resident. "However they want to dismantle our community and silence our voices."

Contrasting Realities

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the high-rise structures and elite residences that loom over the neighborhood. Residences are built haphazardly and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses produce dangerous fumes and the air is permeated by the unpleasant stench of open sewers.

To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of high-end towers, well-maintained green spaces, modern retail complexes and residences with proper sanitation is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We lack proper healthcare, paved pathways or water management and we have no places for children to play," states a chai seller, in his fifties, who relocated from his home state in 1982. "The sole solution is to clear the area and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

Yet certain residents, such as this protester, are opposing the plan.

None deny that the slum, consistently overlooked as unauthorized settlement, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they fear that this project – without public consultation – might turn a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a playground for the rich, evicting the disadvantaged, migrant communities who have been there since generations ago.

This involved these marginalized, displaced people who established the empty marshland into an extensively researched phenomenon of local enterprise and business activity, whose production is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum a year, making it a major informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Among approximately a million people living in the crowded 220-hectare area, fewer than half will be eligible for alternative accommodation in the development, which is expected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be moved to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, potentially divide a generations-old social network. Certain individuals will be denied homes at all.

People eligible to stay in the neighborhood will be given units in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of residing and operating that has maintained the community for many years.

Industries from clothing production to pottery and waste processing are projected to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "commercial zone" separated from homes.

Existential Threat

For residents like this protester, a craftsman and third generation resident to live in Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, three-floor operation makes leather coats – tailored coats, premium outerwear, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in upscale neighborhoods and overseas.

Household members dwells in the rooms below and laborers and tailors – workers from other states – reside in the same building, allowing him to sustain operations. Away from the slum, accommodation prices are typically significantly costlier for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the Dharavi project depicts a contrasting vision for the future. Slickly dressed people move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying continental bread and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the inexpensive idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for residents," says the protester. "This constitutes a huge property transaction that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Additionally, there exists concern of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and an associate of the government head – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Even as local authorities describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group paid nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to publicly resist the development, protesters and community members assert they have been faced ongoing efforts of harassment and intimidation – comprising communications, explicit warnings and insinuations that opposing the project was comparable with anti-national sentiment – by people they claim work for the business conglomerate.

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