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For months, intimidating messages persisted. Initially, supposedly from an ex-law enforcement official and a former defense officer, and then from the police themselves. In the end, Mohammad Khurshid Shaikh claims he was ordered to the local precinct and instructed bluntly: keep quiet or face serious consequences.

The leather artisan is one of many resisting a expensive redevelopment plan where one of India's largest slums – a massive informal community with rich history – faces razed and redeveloped by a large business group.

"The culture of this area is like nowhere else in the globe," explains Shaikh. "Yet their intention is to dismantle our social fabric and stop us speaking out."

Contrasting Realities

The cramped lanes of Dharavi sit in stark contrast to the soaring skyscrapers and elite residences that loom over the area. Homes are constructed informally and often missing basic amenities, informal businesses emit toxic smoke and the atmosphere is permeated by the overpowering odor of open sewers.

Among some individuals, the prospect of the slum's redevelopment into a glistening neighborhood of luxury high-rises, well-maintained green spaces, shiny shopping centers and homes with proper sanitation is an optimistic future achieved.

"There's no adequate medical facilities, roads or drainage and we have no places for kids to enjoy," says a chai seller, in his fifties, who migrated from his home state in the early eighties. "The sole solution is to demolish everything and provide modern residences."

Community Resistance

But others, including the leather artisan, are resisting the plan.

None deny that Dharavi, long neglected as unauthorized settlement, is desperately requiring investment and development. Yet they fear that this project – absent of resident participation – is one that will transform premium city property into a luxury development, forcing out the disadvantaged, immigrant populations who have resided there since generations ago.

These were these excluded, migrant workers who built up the uninhabited area into an extensively researched phenomenon of self-reliance and economic productivity, whose output is worth between one million dollars and a substantial sum a year, making it among the globe's biggest unofficial markets.

Relocation Worries

Out of about a million inhabitants living in the packed 2.2 square kilometer area, fewer than half will be eligible for new homes in the development, which is expected to take a significant period to complete. The remainder will be moved to wastelands and salt plains on the far outskirts of Mumbai, risking fragment a generations-old neighborhood. Some will receive no housing at all.

People eligible to continue living in Dharavi will be given flats in multi-story structures, a substantial change from the evolved, communal way of residing and operating that has maintained the community for generations.

Commercial activities from garment work to clay work and recycling are projected to shrink in number and be relocated to a specific "commercial zone" distant from homes.

Livelihood Crisis

For those such as this protester, a craftsman and third generation inhabitant to live in Dharavi, the redevelopment presents a fundamental risk. His rickety, three-floor workshop produces leather coats – formal jackets, luxury coats, studded bomber jackets – marketed in luxury boutiques in south Mumbai and abroad.

Relatives resides in the rooms underneath and his workers and tailors – migrants from different regions – reside in the same building, allowing him to manage costs. Away from this community, housing costs are typically tenfold as high for minimal space.

Threats and Warning

In the administrative buildings in the vicinity, a conceptual model of the redevelopment plan shows an alternative outlook. Well-groomed people move around on two-wheelers and eco-friendly transport, acquiring western-style bread and breakfast items and socializing on a terrace near a coffee shop and treat station. It is a world away from the affordable idli sambar morning meal and low-cost tea that supports the neighborhood.

"This isn't improvement for our community," states the artisan. "It's a huge real estate deal that will render it impossible for our community to continue."

Furthermore, there's skepticism of the development company. Headed by an influential industrialist – a leading figure and a close ally of the Indian prime minister – the corporation has encountered allegations of preferential treatment and ethical concerns, which it disputes.

While the state government labels it a collaborative effort, the developer contributed nearly a billion dollars for its majority share. A lawsuit stating that the project was unfairly awarded to the corporation is under review in the nation's highest judicial body.

Continued Intimidation

After they started to publicly resist the redevelopment, protesters and community members claim they have been faced ongoing efforts of coercion and warning – involving messages, direct threats and suggestions that criticizing the development was tantamount to anti-national sentiment – by people they assert are associated with the developer.

Among those accused of delivering warnings is {a retired police officer|a former law enforcement official|an ex-c