The legacy of Indian Coffee House

India’s coffee house history is a product of individual freedom. In particular, Indian Coffee House in Kolkata, also known as Coffee House on College Street, has served as a leader of the intellectual and literary movements in modern India. Your coffee is steeped in the vibrant local culture thanks to the hot coffee and even hotter conversations that take place here.

Having a coworker who was born in a metropolis has its drawbacks. Every major or small event tends to excite him. Though it occasionally misses, hits happen a lot more frequently. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the beautiful café in Kolkata’s Hazra More district. This time, we were investigating the Coffee House in Kolkata’s College Street.

Indian Coffee House has a lengthy history that dates back to India’s time before independence. Because colonial Britishers forbade native Indians from dining at coffee shops, a chain of independently owned coffee shops sprang up all over India. It has been managed by an Indian co-operative association of coffee workers since 1958. They have several locations across the nation, but probably no other location has the same level of popularity as the “Coffee House” location on College Street in the heart of what was once Calcutta, now Kolkata.

With its modest tables and chairs, towering ceilings, and prominently displayed large image of Rabindranath Tagore, Asia’s first Nobel winner, Coffee House nevertheless exudes an air of the past. On the upper level seating area, contemporary paintings have been added. The waiters are dressed in starched white uniforms with crimson belts and distinctive turbans that reach their nose height. They give off the impression that serving you is an honour. We adore the enormous amount of earned attitude they exhibit.

The cuisine at Kolkata’s Coffee House is rather dated yet still reasonably priced. About Rs. 200 can buy two people a lunch. Coffee, egg sandwiches, chicken cutlets, fish kobiraji cutlets, and cold coffee are among their hot favourites.

Coffee House is situated on College Street, Kolkata’s literary district, which is already regarded as India’s cultural centre. It makes sense given that Coffee House is much more than a quaint coffee shop. In Kolkata, the Coffee House has served as the centre for literary, intellectual, and cultural activity. The University of Calcutta, Presidency College, and Medical College, all renowned institutions with a rich history and strong reputations, are just across the street from it. Therefore, this café is a favourite gathering place for students who are known to engage in lengthy discussions and debates. This area has also served as a centre for leftist political views, and numerous movements and activism-related concepts have their roots here.

Apart from that, this location is frequently frequented by prominent members of the Indian and Bengali elite for talks, networking with local peers, and general enjoyment of the intellectual joie de vivre.

It is believed that Surendranath Banerjee founded the Indian National Association (also known as Indian Association) here, in 1876. The first Indian National Conference, which took place here in 1883, is said to have paved the way for the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose attended a few political meetings held in this place.”

 The Regular Customer of Indian Coffee house

Oscar-winning director Satyajit Roy, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, acclaimed director Mrinal Sen, well-known novelist Sunil Gangopadhyay, poet Sakti Chattopadhyay, and singer/music director Manna Dey are just a few of their regular clients. As a result, if you are here, you probably already have some distinguished company.

In Kolkata, Indian Coffee House has other locations. We were aware of one in Jadavpur, and Rajarhat, a recently constructed area of the city, is said to have a posh shop. The star, though, continues to be Coffee House at College Street.

The popular adda site in Kolkata has accumulated some dust over the years. There is still something lacking from the Coffee House’s atmosphere, as Kochi Dadu notes. The café’s customers now frequently have to choose between items of a new menu that boasts of chowmein and sandwiches, as opposed to the days when they would order rounds and rounds of tea and piping hot pakodas. To Dadu’s dismay, the café no longer offers his favourite dish on the menu, the chicken omelette. There is something wrong with the café’s essence, albeit it is still full and you must wait a few minutes to acquire a table there. The song Coffee Houser Shei Addata Aaj Aar Nei by Manna Dey, which laments the passing of the good ol’ days at the coffee shop, comes to mind for Kochi Dadu.

Due to the rising popularity of coffee, the Coffee Cess Committee, a governmental agency, opened the first India Coffee House in Churchgate, Bombay, in September 1936. The following few years saw the opening of more such coffee shops across the nation. Despite their initial popularity, by the middle of the 1950s, they were in difficulty. The Cess Committee, which had been reborn as the Coffee Board of India in 1942, then started thinking about closing them down.

When the coffee shops closed, many hundred jobs were lost, and the situation took an unforeseen turn. In an effort to find a solution, a group of workers and the Communist leader AK Gopalan met with Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru proposed that the workers consider forming a cooperative organisation to run the coffee shops. The Indian Coffee Worker’s Cooperative Society seems to have hit a nerve in response to this, eventually taking over the firm from the board.

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