In 1947, decolonization promised a better life for India's peasants, workers, students, Dalits, and religious minorities. By the 1970s, however, this promise had not yet been realized. Various groups fought for the social justice but in response, Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi suspended the constitution, and with it, civil liberties. The hope of decolonization that had turned to disillusion in the postcolonial period quickly descended into a nightmare. In this book, Kristin Plys recounts the little known story of the movement against the Emergency as seen through New Delhi's Indian Coffee House based on newly uncovered evidence and oral histories with the men who led the movement against the Emergency.

2022 CSA Global Sociology Book Award

‘This is a rich and informative historical account of an iconic institution, a space of dissent and debate that came into its own during the Emergency years in India. Plys tells a compelling tale and evokes distinct resonances without sacrificing a historian’s rigorous craft. Written with admirable lucidity, Brewing Resistance is at once the story of a fabled coffeehouse and a narrative about the challenges and pitfalls that manifest themselves on a new nation’s road to decolonisation.’

Priyamvada Gopal - University of Cambridge

‘Brewing Resistance richly contributes to our understanding of “regime change” in the convoluted aftermath of colonial rule by tracing the unexpected role colonial practices and spaces play in the postcolonial state in the making of popular resistance. … In this precarious moment for social movements struggling for equality in India, the analysis of Brewing Resistance is useful to understand the emergency roots of the present political moment but also the possibilities that lie in the reclaiming of urban spaces for creating alternatives.’

Yael Berda Source: American Journal of Sociology