Bhaswati Bhattacharya is a senior academic fellow affiliated with the Centre for Modern Indian Studies at Georg August University, Göttingen. Her publications include Bhattacharya et al., The Diary and Photographs of Jan Kornelis De Cock During his Trip to India, 1909-1910, Leiden: Roel of Barkhuis, 2014; Bhattacharya, Gita Dharampal-Frick and Jos Gommans (eds.),‘The World of Asian Commerce: Temporal and Spatial Continuities’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 50 (2007): 2-3.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. Adda and Public Spaces of Sociability before the ICH;Adda: A Universal Social Practice?; Adda in the Current Context; Delhi; Allahabad; Calcutta; Conclusion

2. India Coffee House: A New Space in the City; The Birth of the India Coffee House; Everyday Practices in the New Urban Space; Democracy in ICH and the Bhadralok; Adda: Space of Dominion and Invisible Hierarchy; Semiotics of the Coffee House; The Coffee House and Imagination; Conclusion

3. The Workers and the Coffee House: From ‘India’ to ‘Indian’; The Coffee Board, the Internal Market and the Coffee House; The Formation of the Coffee Board Labour Union; From India to Indian: The Struggle for Survival; The ICWCSL and the ICH; Functioning; Challenges to Overcome; Conclusion

4. The Indian Coffee House and the World of Literature; Calcutta: All Roads Led to the Coffee House?; Hungry Generation Movement; Shruti and Shastrabirodhi Movement; Shotojol Jhornar Dhwoni; Moheener Ghoraguli; Allahabad: The Place of Literary Pilgrimage; The Crowd at the Coffee House; What Was All That Ado About?; Delhi: The Capital of Hindi Literature; The Performers of the Coffee-Tea House Act; And the Act Stimulated by Coffee; Conclusion

5. Brewing Discontent Instead of Coffee?; Politics and the Indian Coffee House; The PRRM; The Naxalbari Movement in Calcutta and ICH; The Liberation War of Bangladesh; The Emergency; Conclusion

6. How Public is the Public Space of the Indian Coffee House?; Women and the Public Space of the Coffee House; The Pioneers in Calcutta; Delhi; Allahabad; Accommodating the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Communities (LGBT); Conclusion

7. The Middle Class and Coffee Houses: Old and New; The New Coffee Cafés; The Middle Class: New versus Old; The Old Connoisseurs of the Coffee House; Is the Tradition of Adda Finally Dead?; The Current Visitors of the Coffee House; The Political Economy and the Cooperative; Conclusion

Glossary

Indian Coffee House through Photographs