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For months, intimidating messages continued. At first, reportedly from a retired cop and an ex-military commander, subsequently from law enforcement directly. Ultimately, a local artisan claims he was summoned to law enforcement headquarters and told clearly: keep quiet or experience severe repercussions.

Shaikh is one of many fighting a multimillion-dollar project where Dharavi – an iconic Mumbai neighborhood – faces razed and redeveloped by a multinational conglomerate.

"The distinctive community of Dharavi is unparalleled in the planet," explains Shaikh. "However the plan aims to destroy our way of life and prevent our protests."

Opposing Environments

The dank gullies of Dharavi present a dramatic difference to the high-rise structures and luxury apartments that loom over the settlement. Homes are built haphazardly and typically lacking adequate facilities, informal businesses release harmful emissions and the environment is permeated by the overpowering odor of exposed drainage.

To some, the vision of the slum's redevelopment into a modern district of high-end towers, neat parks, modern retail complexes and homes with two toilets is an aspirational dream achieved.

"We don't have adequate medical facilities, roads or sewage systems and there's nowhere for kids to enjoy," says a tea vendor, in his fifties, who relocated from southern India in the early eighties. "The single option is to tear it all down and provide modern residences."

Local Protest

But others, like the leather artisan, are opposing the project.

All recognize that Dharavi, long neglected as an illegal encroachment, is in stark need investment and development. Yet they are concerned that this initiative – without community input – is one that will transform a piece of prime Mumbai real estate into a luxury development, evicting the lower-caste, working-class residents who have resided there since the late 1800s.

It was these marginalized, displaced people who developed the empty marshland into a frequently examined example of self-reliance and business activity, whose economic value is valued at between a significant amount and a substantial sum annually, making it one of the world's largest unofficial markets.

Resettlement Issues

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the packed 220-hectare zone, less than 50% will be qualified for replacement housing in the project, which is expected to take an extended timeframe to finish. Others will be transferred to barren areas and salt plains on the far outskirts of the city, potentially fragment a long-established neighborhood. Some will be denied residences at all.

Residents permitted to stay in the neighborhood will be allocated flats in tower blocks, a major break from the evolved, communal way of dwelling and laboring that has maintained the community for generations.

Businesses from garment work to pottery and waste processing are expected to decrease in quantity and be transferred to an allocated "commercial zone" distant from residential areas.

Survival Challenge

For residents like the leather artisan, a leather artisan and third generation resident to live in the slum, the project presents a fundamental risk. His makeshift, multi-level facility makes leather coats – sharp blazers, suede trenches, fashionable garments – marketed in high-end shops in upscale neighborhoods and internationally.

His family lives in the spaces underneath and his workers and tailors – laborers from different regions – live on-site, permitting him to sustain operations. Outside Dharavi's enclave, Mumbai rents are often 10 times costlier for minimal space.

Harassment and Intimidation

Within the government offices close by, a visual representation of the transformation initiative illustrates an alternative outlook. Slickly dressed people mill about on bicycles and eco-friendly transport, purchasing international bread and croissants and having coffee on an outdoor area outside a restaurant and Ice-Cream. It is a world away from the 20-rupee idli sambar first meal and budget beverage that maintains local residents.

"This represents no development for us," explains the protester. "This constitutes a huge land development that will render it impossible for us to survive."

Furthermore, there's distrust of the development company. Headed by a powerful tycoon – among the country's wealthiest and an associate of the Indian prime minister – the conglomerate has been subject to claims of crony capitalism and questionable practices, which it disputes.

Although local authorities calls it a partnership, the developer paid $950m for its controlling interest. A case claiming that the project was unfairly awarded to the developer is under review in the top court.

Ongoing Pressure

Since they began to vocally oppose the development, Shaikh and other residents state they have been subjected to a long-running campaign of coercion and warning – involving phone calls, clear intimidation and insinuations that speaking against the development was comparable with opposing national interests – by individuals they allege work for the corporate group.

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