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Across several weeks, intimidating phone calls continued. Initially, supposedly from a former police officer and an ex-military commander, and then from law enforcement directly. Finally, a local artisan claims he was ordered to the local precinct and warned explicitly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

This third-generation resident is one of many opposing a multimillion-dollar project where this historic settlement – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of this area is exceptional in the planet," says the resident. "Yet they want to dismantle our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that dominate the area. Residences are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, unregulated industries emit toxic smoke and the air is filled with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the vision of a renewed Dharavi into a developed area of premium apartments, well-maintained green spaces, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is a hopeful vision realized.

"We don't have sufficient health services, paved pathways or water management and there are no spaces for children to play," states A Selvin Nadar, fifty-six, who moved from his home state in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

But others, like the leather artisan, are resisting the redevelopment.

None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need economic input and modernization. Yet they worry that this project – without public consultation – is one that will transform valuable urban land into a luxury development, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the nineteenth century.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who established the vacant wetlands into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose production is estimated at between one million dollars and a substantial sum per year, making it among the globe's biggest unregulated sectors.

Relocation Worries

Of the roughly one million inhabitants living in the dense sprawling neighborhood, fewer than half will be qualified for alternative accommodation in the redevelopment, which is estimated to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be moved to wastelands and coastal regions on the distant periphery of Mumbai, potentially fragment a generations-old community. Some will be denied homes at all.

People eligible to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a substantial change from the natural, shared lifestyle of dwelling and laboring that has sustained the community for many years.

Industries from clothing production to ceramic crafts and recycling are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to a specific "commercial zone" distant from people's residences.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like Shaikh, a workshop owner and long-time resident to live in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His informal, multi-level workshop produces leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in the city's affluent areas and abroad.

Household members lives in the rooms downstairs and employees and garment workers – workers from north India – live on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are typically significantly as high for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the official facilities in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan shows a very different outlook. Fashionable residents move around on cycles and eco-friendly transport, buying continental baked goods and breakfast items and having coffee on a terrace near Dharavi Cafe and dessert parlor. This depicts a world away from the affordable idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that supports Dharavi's community.

"This isn't progress for us," says Shaikh. "It's a massive land development that will price people out for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the corporate group. Managed by a powerful tycoon – one of India's most powerful and a close ally of the national leader – the conglomerate has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it denies.

While local authorities labels it a partnership, the corporation paid a significant amount for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings stating that the project was questionably assigned to the corporation is pending in the top court.

Sustained Harassment

From when they initiated to actively protest the project, local opponents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of pressure and threats – including messages, direct threats and insinuations that opposing the initiative was comparable with speaking against the country – by people they assert represent the business conglomerate.

Part of the group alleged to have issuing the threats is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c