Indian Coffee House: A Living Monument Of Indian Class Struggle
Abin Raj R S
On 1957 June 25, a trade union meeting was held at Cubbon Park in Bangalore. All the workers attending the meeting were deeply saddened and anxious. There was a big crisis in front of them that day. Thousands of ordinary workers, including them, will lose their jobs in a matter of days. The topic of discussion was the government’s move to close down the network of coffee houses run directly by the Coffee Board under the Central Government and dismiss its workers.
All the conciliatory efforts that had been going on for months had failed. Despite trade union leaders holding talks with Union ministers, petitions and protests, the government has taken no positive steps. All the workers have lost hope. Many had moved on to trying to find other jobs. Others began to do housework in high-ranking officials’ quarters without any other means. Others lost all hope of life and blamed fate.
AKG, the union leader, entered the then Bangalore meeting of the workers, who were preparing to retreat without finding any way forward. AK Gopalan is one of the founding leaders of the Communist Party in Kerala. He then came up with an option that no one had even thought of at the time – that network of institutions that would be shut down at a loss should be taken over by the workers who were going to be laid off. Everyone in the meeting looked around in amazement. AKG’s proposal was far from even their dream. How can a board run by the central government – and a board run only by senior officials and IAS officers – be taken over by ordinary workers? Will it get government approval? How can a grassroots worker with no higher education be able to run such a large institution even if it is available? Thus hundreds of questions arose. In response, AKG told organisers gathered there: ‘You are workers. Workers are supposed to rule the world. This is a trivial matter for you. You must directly take over and manage this institution. You have to take it forward without the bosses. ‘ When the beedi companies in North Malabar decided to close down, AK Gopalan, who was in the forefront of organising the revolutionary Kerala Dinesh Beedi owned by thousands of workers who had to make a living, was not worried about his idea.
Inspired by the AKG, who had become the face of the working class struggles in India, the then organising committee decided that the Indian Coffee House workers in Bangalore would take over. The institution will open on the next Independence Day. That decision became a milestone in the history of the co-operative movement in independent India. The coffee houses under the Coffee Board, which the Central Government had decided to close down, were soon taken over by the workers and renamed the Indian Coffee House. Indian coffee houses were set up in all the cities of the country under various labour co-operative societies. Coffee houses with portraits of kings and portraits of AKG hanging on the walls have become a part of our daily lives.
Stories of nostalgia and fond memories are often associated with the coffee house. The first thing that comes to mind with Indian Coffee House is steaming coffee, red masala dosa, beetroot cutlets or the good moments spent there. But the history of the struggle behind that name needs to be marked with more significance. Behind the portrait of AKG in coffee houses are the stories of thousands of workers’ tears, sweat, and struggles. Indian Coffee House is the story of one of the most exciting labour struggles and survival the country has ever seen. The story of an institution without a capitalist, without distinction between workers, literally as a model for the country as a co-operative movement.
History of the Coffee Boards
If you go looking for the history of coffee houses, you have to go back centuries. Coffee house culture has been around in the West since the seventeenth century. Such coffee houses were a place for coffee and snacks and an intellectual exercise centre for the upper class. The place was frequented by thinkers, writers, researchers and students. Discussions and literary debates on new ideas and ideas would take place in the coffee houses. They nicknamed these coffee houses ‘Penny University’ for a pennyworth of coffee.
Even when the coffee house culture came to India through the British, it did not change much. The first coffee house in India was opened in 1780 in Calcutta. The fact is that such coffee houses and coffee clubs, which later opened in Madras and Bangalore, were meant for the entertainment and association of the British. Then, years later, the coffee board was established, and the popular coffee houses of the form we see today came into being. The Consolidated Company was the owner of the largest coffee plantation in British India. The chairman of the company is a British man named Iverbull. Iverbull initiated efforts to create a domestic coffee market harvested by British companies in coffee plantations in India. The India Coffee Market Expansion Board was formed in 1940 under the leadership of Iverbull to protect the Indian coffee industry from creating a profitable new market for unsold coffee in the plantations.
Most of the board members were gardeners. In 1942, the system became the Coffee Board. Coffee houses were later set up all over India under the Coffee Board. After independence, the representation of plantation owners on the board declined, and officials in government service moved to the position of chairman. At that time, all decisions regarding the coffee industry in India were taken by the Coffee Board. As the gardeners wanted, the Coffee Board created and maintained a large market for coffee in India. In addition, for coffee houses to change the coffee as part of the daily life of the city dwellers. It has to be said that coffee has gained popularity in a short period through coffee houses that the British could not reach even after decades of trying. When the Coffee Board was established, there were about fifty coffee houses in India. If the Coffee House was Penny University for the West, for the Indians, it was beginning to become a different kind of cultural centre.
Writers, musicians and filmmakers were once a regular presence in these coffee houses. The coffee house opposite Presidency College in Kolkata was the main abode of Rabindranath Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Mannade, Amartya Sen, Mrinal Sen and Aparnasen. The practice of serving coffee as an accompaniment to literary and cinematic discussions gradually spread to other cities. Thus the term ‘coffee house intellectual’ came into being. Another interesting fact is that the Malayalees have worked hard to increase the popularity of coffee houses. The first secretary of the Coffee Board was a Malayalee – M.J. Simon. Simon’s influence is the main reason why most of the coffee houses in India become Malayalee employees. The Coffee House has long been a haven for many Malayalees who have migrated to the cities searching for work. Moreover, MJ Simon was the first to design the supplier uniform in this form, which is still the face of the Indian Coffee House today.
Co-operative Society as Class Struggle: Birth and Growth of Indian Coffee Houses
The decision to dissolve the Coffee Board came when coffee houses were deeply entrenched in Indian cities. One explanation for the closure was that the Coffee Board, which was formed to support the coffee market in India, had fulfilled its objectives. The unexpected decision that there was no need for a board or a coffee house to promote coffee in the country worried the thousands of subordinates who worked in the coffee houses.
The first recommendation to hand over the coffee house to a private individual was made in 1951, based on audit figures showing that the coffee house was at a loss. In 1952, this recommendation was approved in principle by the Coffee Board. The findings of the Plantation Industries Commission, which came into force in 1956, strengthened this decision. Coffee houses do not have to be run at government expense to promote the coffee industry, and traders can well run such establishments. Therefore, coffee houses should be handed over to the industrialists – these were the main observations.
With the approval of the Central Government, the closure proceedings were expedited. The top officials who chaired the Coffee Board were transferred to other departments, and the lowest-ranking workers were dismissed. No discussion of workers losing their jobs and taking to the streets was on the agenda at the Coffee Board meetings. Ordinary workers, who played a crucial role in popularising coffee houses, were brutally deceived by the government.
But the Labor Union on the Coffee Board came to the fore to speak up for the workers. The union had been working secretly among the workers on the board since 1947. Under pressure from the union, political leaders and parliamentarians met with the then Union ministers and requested that the coffee house not be closed. But to no avail. With all other avenues closed, the AKG intervened with the suggestion that workers should take over the coffee boards by forming co-operative societies.
Although it was a revolutionary decision, things were not so easy. Dismissal orders were issued in stages, despite the struggles of the workers. Eventually, workers and leaders did so until the Labor Union announced that it would be fasting until death. However, the Coffee Board was not willing to co-operate in any way. India’s first worker-led coffee house was unable to open on the announced date due to official interruptions.
However, the AKG and the workers did not back down. AKG organised coffee house workers all over the country. On August 19, 1957, India’s first Coffee Board Workers’ Co-operative Society was formed in Bangalore. With the approval of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the first coffee house under the Co-operative Societies was opened in Delhi on October 27 of the same year. It was the beginning of one of the most successful labour movements in independent India.
Overcoming the initial disagreements and concerns, Indian coffee houses began to proliferate. The following year, after Delhi, a coffee house was set up in Bangalore under a co-operative society. After starting operations in Pondicherry, Worker Coffee House came to Kerala for the fourth time. The first Indian Coffee House in Kerala was started on March 8, 1958, in Thrissur. The first capital of the Thrissur Coffee House was 2100 Rs. The current price of a cup of coffee is ten paise. Soon after, the second coffee house in Kerala was established in Thalassery. NS Parameshwan Pillai, one of the founding leaders of the Coffee Board Laborers’ Union and the director of the Coffee Houses Association of the country, was responsible for setting up coffee houses in Kerala. He authored a book, The Story of the Coffee House, the only available written history of the Indian Coffee House.
Indian Coffee Houses Today
At present, Indian Coffee Houses in Kerala operate as two co-operative societies. The Thrissur based group is responsible for the coffee houses in South Kerala. The coffee houses in North Kerala are run by a group based in Kannur. About eighty coffee houses are operating under these two groups. There are now thirteen co-operative societies across the country and more than four hundred coffee houses under them. The Indian Coffee House has not lost its status as a cultural hub, even when operating under workers. Various coffee houses in Kerala hosted film festivals and literary discussion circles involving prominent writers such as Basheer, MT and Sukumar Azhikode. With the workers’ takeover, the image of the upper-class entertainment centre was changed, and coffee houses were coming down to the common people.
Indian coffee houses represent a new food culture and a work culture that has never been seen before. Those who start in the lowest position also can reach the highest ranks of the coffee house. Direct elections will be held only for the post of General Worker. All workers have the opportunity to write promotion exams for higher positions. The tips that each worker in the coffee house receives are the same for all other workers. That is why coffee houses, which are based on the idea of co-operation, without competition, are becoming a separate workplace.
Coffee houses are one of the most memorable experiences of those who once lived in the big cities of India like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and various district centres in Kerala, and the coffee houses had a significant impact on the food culture and civic life of Kerala. The crown turban worn by the workers in the coffee houses is also the turban of the power they have gained through their struggles against exploitation, and we see on the walls of the coffee houses the leader who guided them in those struggles.
Abin Raj R S is a final year civil engineering student at K L University in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
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