History - 5

Print Culture and the Modern World

Printing started in East Asia and expanded to Europe and in India.

1, THE FIRST PRINTED BOOKS

Earliest kind of print was developed in China, Japan and Korea.
China was the major producer of printed material for a very long time.
By the 17th century urban culture bloomed in China, the use of print diversified.
Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture, catering to the Western-style
schools.
Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing in Japan.
Oldest Japanese Book - Diamond Sutra [contained 6 sheets of text & woodcut illustrations.]
In the flourishing urban circles at Edo(Tokyo) illustrated collections of paintings
depicted an elegant urban culture, involving artists, courtesans and teahouse
gatherings.
Kitagawa Utamaro
born in Edo in 1753.
widely known for his contributions to an art form called ukiyo [’pictures of the floating
world’] which depicted ordinary human experiences, especially urban ones.

2, PRINT COMES to EUROPE

Chinese paper reached Europe via the Silk Route in the 11th century.
Marco Polo took this new woodblock printing technology with him to Italy and soon
the technology spread to other parts of Europe.
Luxury Editions were still handwritten on very expensive vellum [parchment made from
the skin of animals].
Manuscripts were fragile to handle and could not be take everywhere and hence their
circulation remained limited,
Arrival of the PRINTING PRESS;
Launched in Strasbourg, Germany.
 Made by Johann Gutenberg.
In the 1430s.
Johann Gutenberg
was the son of a merchant and grew up on a large agricultural estate.
He learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith and also
acquired the expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets.
The olive press provided the model for printing press and the moulds were used
for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet.
By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system.
PRINTING PRESS:
First book to be printed was the Bible.
This new technology didn’t entirely replace the existing art of producing books by
hand.
Printed books at first closely resembled the manuscripts in appearance and layout.
In 100 years from 1450 to 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries
of Europe.
The second half of the fifteenth century saw 20 million copies of printed books
flooding the markets in Europe.
The number went up in the sixteenth century to about 200 million copies.
This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.
Compositor - the person who composed the text for printing.
Galley - metal frame in which types are laid and the text is composed.
Platen - it is a board which is pressed onto the back of the paper to get the
impression from the type.

3, THE PRINT REVOLUTION and ITS IMPACTS

With the print revolution not only a new way of producing books developed but it also
changed the lives of many, changing their relationship to information and knowledge.
It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things.
Printing reduced the cost of books which made them more affordable for the common
and so people could read books.
Earlier, books were only for the elites as they were very expensive. Common people
lived in the world of oral culture.
But this transition was not so simple as until the 20th century people were not very
literate.
Ballads - A historical account of folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited.
Taverns - Places where people gathered to drink alcohol, to be served, food, and to
meet friends and exchange news.
Not everyone welcomed the printed book as they had fears about its easy
accessibility. It was feared that if there was not control over what was printed and
read then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread,
Martin Luther -
in 1517 he wrote Ninety Five Theses [which criticised many of the practices and rituals of the
Roman Catholic Church].
a printed copy of his book was posted to a church in Wittenberg which was
challenged by him to debate his ideas.
Protestant Reformation - A 16th century movement tot reform the Catholic Chruch
dominated by Rome.
Menocchio -
a miller in Italy.
He reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and
Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.
The Roman Church, troubled by such effects of popular reading and questionings
of faith, imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers and began to
maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

4, THE READING MANIA

Through the 17th and the 18th centuries, literacy rates went up in most parts of
Europe.
As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading
mania.
Almanacs - An annual publication giving astronomical data, information about the
movements of the sun and moon, timing of full tides and eclipses, and much else that
was of importance in the everyday life of people.
Chapbooks -
A term used to describe pocket sized books that were sold by travelling pedlars
called chapmen.
These became popular from the time of the 16th century print revolution.
Bibliotheque Bleue -
These were low priced small books printed on poor quality paper and bound in
cheap blue covers sold in France.
By the mid 18th century, there was a common conviction that books were a means
of spreading progress and enlightenment.
Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and
tyranny.
Louise-Sebastian Mercier -
A novelist in 18th century France.
Said: “The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public
opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.”
MANY HISTORIANS HAVE ARGUED THAT PRINT CULTURE CREATED THE
CONDITIONS WITHIN WHICH FRENCH REVOLUTION OCCURED.
Print popularised ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. They argued for the rule of
reason rather than custom and demanded that everything be judged through the
application of reason and nationality.
Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. People recognised the need to
question existing ideas and beliefs.
By the 1780s there was and outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and
criticised their morality. In the process, it raised questions about the existing
social order.
This literature circulated underground and led to the growth of hostile sentiments
against the monarchy,

5, THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

The nineteenth century saw vast leaps in mass literacy in Europe, bringing in large
numbers of new readers among children, women and workers.
From the late 19th century, primary education became compulsory and children
became and important category of readers.
The folk tales compiled by the Grimm Brothers in Germany were published as a
collection in 1812.
Women became important as readers as well as writers.
Some female novelists -
Jane Austen.
the Bronte sisters.
George Eliot.
Lending libraries had been in existence from the 17th century onwards.
Workers wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.
By the late 18th century, the press came to be made out of metal.
By the mid 19th century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-
driven cylindrical press which was capable of printing 8000 sheets per hour.
In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series called the Shilling
Series.
To sustain book purchases during the Great Depression in the 1930s, book publishers
brought of cheap paperback editions.

6, INDIA and the WORLD of PRINT

Manuscripts continued to be produced till well after the introduction of print, down
to the late 19th century.
The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16th
century.
The first Indian newspaper, weekly Bengal Gazette was brought out by Gangadhar
Bhattacharya.

7, RELIGIOUS REFORM and PUBLIC DEBATES

from the early 19th century..........

Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the
nature of the debate.
This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious reformers and
the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical
priesthood and idolatry.
In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a
variety of arguments.
Rammohun Roy -
published Sambad Kaumudi.
To oppose Rammohun Roy’s opinions the Hindu Orthodoxy commissioned the
Samachar Chandrika.
From 1822, two Persian newspapers were published Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul
Akhbar.
In the same year, a Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, made its appearance.
Ulama - Legal Scholars of Islam and the sharia (a body of Islamic law).
Fatwa - A legal pronouncement on Islamic law usually given by a mufti (legal scholar)
to clarify issues on which the law is uncertain.
The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of
fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their daily lives, and
explaining the meaning of Islamic Doctrines.
Ramcharitamanas of Tulsidas a 16th century text came out from Calcutta in 1810.
From the 1880s...
Naval Kishore Press - Lucknow
Shri Venkateshwar Press - Bombay
Religious texts, therefore, reached a very wide circle or people, encouraging
discussions, debated and controversies within and among different religions.
Print did not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst
communities, but it also connected communities and people in different parts of India.

8, NEW FORMS of PUBLICATION

By the end of the 19th century, a new visual culture was taking shape.
Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation.
By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and
newspapers, commenting on social and political issues.
Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox household, learnt to read in
the secrecy of her kitchen. Later she wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban which was
published in 1876 which was the first Bengali autobiography.
Bengali Women writers -
Rashsundari Debi
Kailashbashini Debi
Maharashtrian Women writers -
Tarabai Shinde
Pandita Ramabai
Urdu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi print culture had developed early but Hindi printing
began seriously only from the 1870s.
Ram Chaddha published Istri Dharm Vichar [to teach women how to be obedient wives].
The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar message.
Battala in Bengal was entirely devoted to printing of popular books.
Public libraries were set up from the early 20th century, expanding the access to
books.
For local patrons, setting up a library was a way of acquiring prestige.
Jyotiba Phule -
Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements
 Wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri.
Kashibaba -
a Kanpur mill worker.
wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938.
Sudarshan Chakr - published a collection called Sacchi Kavitayan.

9, PRINT AND CENSORSHIP

Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was not too concerned
with censorship.
By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to control
press freedom and the company began encouraging publication of newspapers that
would celebrate British rule.
Thomas Macaulay - liberal colonial official.
In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modelled on the Irish Press Laws.
It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials
int he vernacular press.
From now on the government kept regular track of the vernacular newspapers
published in different provinces.

~~~ The End ~~~