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Over an extended period, threatening messages continued. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and a retired army general, and then from the authorities. Ultimately, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the police station and told clearly: remain silent or face serious consequences.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a expensive project where one of India's largest slums – one of India’s largest and most storied slums – faces bulldozed and modernized by a multinational conglomerate.

"The unique ecosystem of Dharavi is like nowhere else in the world," explains the protester. "Yet their intention is to destroy our community and prevent our protests."

Contrasting Realities

The dank gullies of this community stand in sharp opposition to the towering buildings and luxury apartments that overshadow the neighborhood. Dwellings are built haphazardly and frequently without proper sanitation, unregulated industries produce dangerous fumes and the environment is saturated with the suffocating smell of uncovered waste channels.

To some, the promise of Dharavi transformed into a developed area of luxury high-rises, organized recreational areas, contemporary malls and homes with multiple bathrooms is an aspirational dream come true.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or drainage and there are no spaces for children to play," says A Selvin Nadar, 56, who migrated from Tamil Nadu in 1982. "The sole solution is to tear it all down and construct proper housing."

Community Resistance

However, some, such as this protester, are opposing the redevelopment.

None deny that Dharavi, historically ignored as an illegal encroachment, is urgently needing investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this project – lacking public consultation – could potentially transform premium city property into a playground for the rich, evicting the marginalized, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these excluded, relocated individuals who established the empty marshland into a widely studied marvel of community resilience and business activity, whose economic value is worth between $1m and two million dollars per year, making it among the globe's biggest informal economies.

Relocation Worries

Out of about 1 million residents living in the dense sprawling zone, less than 50% will be eligible for replacement housing in the redevelopment, which is projected to take a significant period to accomplish. Others will be relocated to undeveloped zones and coastal regions on the far outskirts of Mumbai, risking divide a generations-old neighborhood. Some will receive no homes at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the area will be allocated apartments in tower blocks, a significant rupture from the organic, collective approach of dwelling and laboring that has supported this area for generations.

Commercial activities from clothing production to clay work and waste processing are likely to decrease in quantity and be moved to an allocated "industrial sector" distant from residential areas.

Livelihood Crisis

For residents like this protester, a workshop owner and long-time resident to reside in this community, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His informal, three-storey workshop produces leather coats – sharp blazers, luxury coats, decorated jackets – sold in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and overseas.

His family lives in the spaces underneath and his workers and sewers – laborers from different regions – live on-site, allowing him to manage costs. Away from Dharavi's enclave, housing costs are often tenfold costlier for a single room.

Harassment and Intimidation

At the government offices close by, a visual representation of the transformation initiative depicts a contrasting perspective. Fashionable people gather on cycles and e-vehicles, purchasing continental baguettes and breakfast items and enlisting beverages on an outdoor area outside Dharavi Cafe and treat station. This represents a complete departure from the inexpensive idli sambar first meal and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This represents no development for our community," says Shaikh. "It's a huge land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

There is also concern of the corporate group. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the business group has been subject to claims of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it rejects.

While administrative bodies describes it as a collaborative effort, the business group invested nearly a billion dollars for its controlling interest. Legal proceedings claiming that the initiative was questionably assigned to the business group is under review in India's supreme court.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the project, Shaikh and other residents state they have been faced ongoing efforts of pressure and threats – involving phone calls, explicit warnings and suggestions that opposing the project was equivalent to speaking against the country – by figures they assert work for the corporate group.

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