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Across several weeks, coercive messages continued. Initially, allegedly from a former police officer and a former defense officer, later from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh states he was ordered to the police station and instructed bluntly: remain silent or encounter real trouble.

The leather artisan is one of many opposing a high-value redevelopment plan where Dharavi – a massive informal community with rich history – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The culture of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," says the resident. "Yet the plan aims to dismantle our community and stop us speaking out."

Dual Worlds

The narrow alleys of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and luxury apartments that dominate the area. Residences are assembled randomly and often without proper sanitation, small-scale operations emit toxic smoke and the environment is saturated with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

For certain residents, the prospect of a renewed Dharavi into a modern district of premium apartments, neat parks, contemporary malls and homes with two toilets is an optimistic future realized.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and we have no places for kids to enjoy," states A Selvin Nadar, 56, who moved from southern India in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Resident Opposition

Yet certain residents, including Shaikh, are fighting against the redevelopment.

All recognize that Dharavi, historically ignored as unauthorized settlement, is urgently needing financial support and improvement. But they are concerned that this project – absent of public consultation – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into an elite enclave, displacing the lower-caste, immigrant populations who have lived there since the late 1800s.

It was these shunned, migrant workers who established the uninhabited area into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is estimated at between $1m and $2m per year, making it one of the world's largest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about one million residents living in the crowded sprawling zone, fewer than half will be qualified for new homes in the project, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to accomplish. Additional residents will be relocated to undeveloped zones and salt plains on the far outskirts of the metropolis, threatening to divide a long-established community. Certain individuals will not get homes at all.

People eligible to remain in Dharavi will be given apartments in multi-story structures, a major break from the evolved, collective approach of living and working that has maintained the community for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to ceramic crafts and material recovery are likely to reduce in scale and be transferred to a specific "business area" far from homes.

Survival Challenge

In the case of the leather artisan, a leather artisan and multi-generational inhabitant to live in the slum, the redevelopment presents a survival challenge. His makeshift, multi-level operation produces leather coats – tailored coats, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in the city's affluent areas and internationally.

His family lives in the spaces below and laborers and sewers – migrants from other states – reside on-site, enabling him to manage costs. Outside the slum, accommodation prices are typically 10 times as high for a single room.

Pressure and Coercion

Within the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a visual representation of the redevelopment plan illustrates an alternative perspective. Fashionable people mill about on two-wheelers and e-vehicles, acquiring continental bread and breakfast items and socializing on a patio near a restaurant and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar breakfast and budget beverage that maintains local residents.

"This represents no improvement for us," explains the artisan. "This constitutes a huge real estate deal that will make it unaffordable for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's concern of the business conglomerate. Managed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the national leader – the business group has faced accusations of preferential treatment and financial impropriety, which it rejects.

Although the state government describes it as a partnership, the developer invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. A lawsuit claiming that the redevelopment was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Ongoing Pressure

After they started to actively protest the development, local opponents claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – including communications, direct threats and suggestions that opposing the project was equivalent to opposing national interests – by figures they allege represent the corporate group.

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