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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls recurred. At first, allegedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a retired army general, later from the police themselves. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh asserts he was called to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: stop speaking out or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is among those fighting a multimillion-dollar redevelopment plan where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and modernized by a large business group.

"The unique ecosystem of the slum is exceptional in the planet," says Shaikh. "However they want to eradicate our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The cramped lanes of this community stand in sharp opposition to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Residences are built haphazardly and frequently missing basic amenities, unregulated industries release harmful emissions and the environment is filled with the unpleasant stench of exposed drainage.

For certain residents, the prospect of Dharavi transformed into a glistening neighborhood of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is a hopeful vision realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or drainage and there's nowhere for youth to recreate," says A Selvin Nadar, 56, who moved from his home state in that period. "The only way is to demolish everything and build us new homes."

Resident Opposition

However, some, like this protester, are resisting the redevelopment.

All recognize that this community, long neglected as informal housing, is in stark need financial support and improvement. Yet they worry that this initiative – without public consultation – might convert valuable urban land into a playground for the rich, displacing the lower-caste, working-class residents who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of self-reliance and commercial output, whose economic value is estimated at between $1m and two million dollars a year, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million residents living in the packed 220-hectare neighborhood, fewer than half will be able for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take seven years to accomplish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, potentially fragment a long-established social network. Certain individuals will be denied residences at all.

People eligible to continue living in the neighborhood will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the natural, shared lifestyle of living and working that has maintained the community for many years.

Businesses from garment work to ceramic crafts and waste processing are expected to reduce in scale and be transferred to a designated "business area" separated from people's residences.

Existential Threat

For those such as Shaikh, a leather artisan and third generation inhabitant to call home Dharavi, the project presents a survival challenge. His rickety, multi-level operation makes garments – tailored coats, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family resides in the spaces downstairs and his workers and sewers – laborers from different regions – also sleep there, permitting him to manage costs. Beyond the slum, accommodation prices are frequently 10 times more expensive for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the Dharavi project shows an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed people move around on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, purchasing international baked goods and croissants and enlisting beverages on a terrace outside a restaurant and treat station. This represents a stark contrast from the inexpensive idli sambar morning meal and 5-rupee chai that maintains the neighborhood.

"This represents no development for our community," states the protester. "It represents a huge real estate deal that will price people out for residents to remain."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Run by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the national leader – the business group has faced accusations of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it rejects.

While the state government describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group paid a significant amount for its majority share. A case stating that the initiative was improperly granted to the corporation is being considered in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to publicly resist the redevelopment, Shaikh and other residents assert they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – comprising phone calls, explicit warnings and implications that criticizing the initiative was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by individuals they allege represent the developer.

Part of the group suspected of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c