Much Ado Over Coffee
Indian Coffee House Then And Now

Based on oral history, fiction, fascinating intellectual gossip, and records of the Coffee Board of India, this study is a multi-sited ethnography of the Indian Coffee House, possibly the world?s first coffee house chain. It offers a critical analysis of adda (informal meetings) of the educated middle class in Allahabad, Calcutta and Delhi. The coffee house became the new socio-intellectual nerve centre, replacing the neigbourhood tea shops, and creating an entirely different social space. This book will have line drawings and cartoons as well as archival photographs.

1. Adda and Public Spaces of Sociability before the ICH 2. India Coffee House: A New Space in the City 3. The Workers and the Coffee House: From ‘India’ to ‘Indian’ 4. The Indian Coffee House and the World of Literature 5. Brewing Discontent Instead of Coffee? 6. How Public is the Public Space of the Indian Coffee House? 7. The Middle Class and Coffee Houses: Old and New

Bhaswati Bhattacharya is a historian affiliated with the Centre for Modern Indian Studies in Göttingen. Her publications include Bhattacharya et al The diary and photographs of Jan Kornelis De Cock during his trip to India 1909–10, Leiden: Roelof Barkhuis, 2014.