CH 5 Print Culture Rdy Rdy

Download as docx, pdf, or txt
Download as docx, pdf, or txt
You are on page 1of 7

Lesson Notes (Session: 2023- 24) Ch 5 (Print Culture)

The First Printed Books


1. China, Japan and Korea developed the earliest kind of print technology, which was a system
of hand printing.
2. Books in China were printed by rubbing paper from AD 594 and both the sides of the book
were folded and stitched.
3. China for a long time was the major producer of printed material. China started conducting
civil service examinations for its bureaucrats and its textbooks were printed in vast numbers.
4. Print was no longer confined to scholar-officials. Merchants used print while collecting their
trade information. Reading became a part of leisure activity and rich women started publishing
their own poetry and plays. This new reading culture attracted new technology.
5. In the late 19th century, Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported.
Print in Japan
1. Hand-printing technology was introduced by Buddhist missionaries from China into Japan
around AD 768-770.
2. The Buddhist Diamond Sutra is the oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, containing six
sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.
3. Printing of visual material led to interesting publishing practices. In the late 19 th century,
illustrative collections of paintings depicted an elegant urban culture and libraries and
bookstores were packed with hand-printed material of various types – books on women,
musical instruments, etc.

Print Comes to Europe


1. Marco Polo returned to Europe after exploring China and along with him, he brought the
knowledge of woodblock printing and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.
2. Gradually, the demands of books started increasing so booksellers began exporting books to
many different countries. But the production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the
ever-increasing demand for books.
3. Europe widely started using woodblocks to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures
with simple, brief texts. Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known printing press in the
1430s.
Gutenberg and the Printing Press
1. Gutenberg was an expert in the art of polishing stones and with this knowledge; he adapted
existing technology to design his innovation.
2. The first printed book with the new system was the Bible. With the adaption of new
technology the existing art of producing books by hand was not entirely displaced.
3. Books printed for the rich left blank space for decoration on the printed page. In the hundred
years between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe.
4. The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.

The Print Revolution and Its Impact


Print revolution is not only a new way of producing books it transformed the lives of people,
changing their relationship to information and knowledge, and with institutions and authorities.
Following were the effects:
1. A New Reading Public
The cost of books was reduced due to the print revolution. Markets were flooded with books
reaching out to an ever-growing readership. It created a new culture of reading. Earlier, elites
are only permitted to read books and common people used to hear sacred texts readout. Before
the print revolution, books were expensive. But, the transition was not as simple as books could
only be read by the literate. Printers started publishing popular ballads and folk tales illustrated
with pictures for those who did not read. Oral culture entered print and printed material were
orally transmitted.
2. Religious Debates and the Fear of Print
Print introduced a new world of debate and discussion. Printed books are not welcomed by
everyone and many were apprehensive of the effects that the wider circulation of books could
have on people’s minds. There was a fear of spreading rebellious and irreligious thoughts. In
1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses, criticising many of the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. His textbook printed copy led to a division
within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
3. Print and Dissent
In the sixteenth century, Menocchio began to read books available in his locality. He
reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged
the Roman Catholic Church. Menocchio was hauled up twice and ultimately executed. From
1558, The Roman Church began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books.

4. The Reading Mania


In most parts of Europe, literacy rates went up, through the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Schools and literacy spread in European countries due to which people wanted
production of more books. Other forms of reading mainly based on entertainment began to
reach ordinary readers. Books were of various sizes, serving many different purposes and
interests. From the early 18th century, periodical press developed which combined information
related to current affairs with entertainment. Journals and newspapers carried information
related to wars, trade and developments in other places. Issac Newton discoveries were
published which influenced scientifically-minded readers.
5. ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!’
Books were considered as a means of spreading progress and enlightenment by the mid-
eighteenth century. According to Louise-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in eighteenth-century
France said that ‘The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion
is the force that will sweep despotism away.’ Convinced of the power of print in bringing
enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism, Mercier proclaimed: ‘Tremble, therefore,
tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’
Print Culture and the French Revolution
Historians argued that print culture created the conditions for the French Revolution. Three
types of arguments were put forward.
1. Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. Their writings provided a critical
commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism. The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau
were read widely; and people saw the world through new eyes, eyes that were questioning,
critical and rational.
2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. Within this public culture, new ideas of
social revolution came into being.
3. By the 1780s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their
morality.
Print helps in spreading ideas. They accepted some ideas and rejected others and interpreted
things their way. Print did not directly shape their minds, but it did open up the possibility of
thinking differently.

The Nineteenth Century


Large numbers of new readers among children, women and workers were added to the mass
literacy in Europe during the 19th century.
Children, Women and Workers
From the late 19th century, primary education became compulsory. In 1857, a children’s press
was set up in France devoted to literature for children. Traditional folk tales were gathered by
Grimm Brothers in Germany. Rural folk tales acquired a new form. Women became important
as readers as well as writers. Magazines were published especially dedicated for women, as
were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping. In the nineteenth century, lending
libraries in England became instruments for educating white-collar workers, artisans and lower-
middle-class people.
Further Innovations
Press came to be made out of metal by the late eighteenth century. Printing technology saw a
series of further innovations by the 19th century. During that century, power-driven cylindrical
press was perfected by Richard M, which was particularly used for printing newspapers. The
offset was developed which was capable of printing six colours at a time. By the 20th century,
electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations followed by other series of
development.

1. Methods of feeding paper improved


2. The quality of plates became better
3. Automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced

India and the World of Print


Manuscripts before the Age of Print
1. India is a country rich in old tradition of handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic,
Persian, as well as in various vernacular languages.
2. These handwritten manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.
3. The production of the manuscript continued well after the introduction of print. It is considered
highly expensive and fragile.
4. In Bengal, students were only taught to write due to which many became literate without ever
actually reading any kinds of texts.
Print Comes to India
1. In the mid-sixteenth century, the first printing press came to Goa with Portuguese
missionaries.
2. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713 the first
Malayalam book was printed by them. The English press grew quite late in India even though
the English East India Company began to import presses from the late seventeenth century.
4. A weekly magazine named the Bengal Gazette was edited by James Augustus Hickey.
5. Advertisements were published by Hickey and he also published a lot of gossip about the
Company’s senior officials in India.
6. By the close of the eighteenth century, a number of newspapers and journals appeared in
print.

Religious Reform and Public Debates


1. Religious issues became intense from the early nineteenth century. People started
criticizing existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the
arguments of reformers.
2. Printed tracts and newspapers spread new ideas and shaped the nature of the debate.
New ideas emerged and intense controversies erupted between social and religious
reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism,
Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry.
3. In 1821, Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi. In 1822, two Persian
newspapers published Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar. In the same year, a
Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, was established.
4. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of
fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives and
explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines.
5. Print encouraged the reading of religious texts, among Hindus, especially in the
vernacular languages. Religious texts reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging
discussions, debates and controversies within and among different religions.
6. Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.

New Forms of Publication


1. New kinds of writing were introduced as more and more people got interested in reading. In
Europe, the novel, a literary firm, was developed to cater to the needs of people who acquired
Indian forms and styles.
2. New literary forms entered the world of reading such as lyrics, short stories, essays about
social and political matters.
3. New visual culture took shape by the end of the nineteenth century. Cheap calendars were
available in the bazaar which can be bought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their
homes or places of work.
4. These prints began shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics,
and society and culture. Caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and
newspapers, commenting on social and political issues by 1870s.
Women and Print
1. Women’s reading increased enormously in middle-class homes. Schools were set up in cities
for women. Journals also started carrying writings by women and explained why women should
be educated.
2. But, Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared
that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.
3. Social reforms and novels created a great interest in women’s lives and emotions. In the
early twentieth century, journals, written and edited by women, became extremely popular.
4. In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta – the Battala – was devoted to the printing of
popular books. By the late nineteenth century, a lot of these books were profusely illustrated
with woodcuts and coloured lithographs.
5. Pedlars took the Battala publications to homes, enabling women to read them in their leisure
time.
Print and the Poor People
1. Cheap books were bought at markets. Public libraries were set up mostly located in cities and
towns.
2. In the late 19th century, caste discrimination started coming up in many printed tracts and
essays. Factory workers lacked education to write much about their experience.
3. In 1938, Kashibaba wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 to show the
links between caste and class exploitation.
4. In the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves.

Print and Censorship


1. Censorship was not a concern under the East India Company. The Calcutta Supreme Court
passed certain regulations to control press freedom and in 1835, Governor-General Bentinck
agreed to revise press laws.
2. Thomas Macaulay formulated new rules that restored the earlier freedom. The freedom of
press changed after the revolt of 1857.
3. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modeled on the Irish Press Laws, which
provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular
press.
4. Government started keeping track of the vernacular newspapers. Nationalists newspapers
grew in numbers all over India.
5. In 1907, Punjab revolutionaries were deported, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great
sympathy about them in his Kesari which led to his imprisonment in 1908.
NCERT Q / A (Session: 2023- 24) Hist. Ch. 5
1. Give reason for the following:
a) Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.
b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it.
c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of prohibited books from the mid-
sixteenth century
d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for the liberty of speech, liberty of the press,
and freedom of association.

Ans: (a) Marco Polo, the Italian explorer, visited China and learnt the technology of woodblock
printing. When he returned to Italy in 1295, he brought this knowledge back with him. Gradually
this knowledge spread from Italy to other parts of Europe.
(b) In 1517, Martin Luther, the religious reformer, wrote ninety-five theses that criticised the
corrupt practices of the Catholic Church and pasted these on the church door in Wittenberg.
Very soon, thousands of copies of Luther’s theses were printed, spreading his ideas among
people. Martin Luther was deeply moved by realizing the power of printing, which brought about
the reformation movement and the eventual birth of Protestantism.
(c) Print and popular literature encouraged many distinctive interpretations of religious faiths
and ideas. In the 16th century, Manocchio, a roller in Italy, began to read books available readily
in his locality. He gave a new interpretation of the Bible and formulated a view of God and
creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, Manocchio was hauled up twice
and ultimately executed when the Roman Catholic Church began its inquisition.
(d) Mahatma Gandhi said these words in 1922 during the Non-cooperation Movement.
According to him, without the liberty of speech, the liberty of the press and freedom of
association, no nation can even survive. If the country was to get free from foreign domination,
then these liberties were quite important.
2. Write short notes on what you know about:
a) The Gutenberg Press b) Erasmus’s idea of the printed book c) The Vernacular Press
Act
Ans: (a) The Gutenberg Press was the first printing press of Europe. It was invented by
Johannes Gutenberg of Strasbourg. He grew up in a large agricultural estate and had
knowledge and experience in operating olive and wine presses. He invented the printing press
around the year 1448 with the Bible being the first book to be printed.(b) Erasmus, the Latin
scholar, was not happy with the printing of books because he was afraid that this would lead to
the circulation of books with rebellious ideas. He felt that although a few books may give useful
information, the majority of books may just be irrelevant or illogical through which scandalous of
irreligious ideas will spread, ultimately leading to incitement of rebellion.(c) The Vernacular
Press Act was passed in 1878 by the British government in India. This act provided the
government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the Vernacular Press. If a
Vernacular Paper published any seditious material, the paper was banned, and its printing
machinery was seized and destroyed.
3. What did the spread of print culture in the nineteenth century India mean to?

a) Women b) The poor c) Reformers

Ans: (a) Women:


1. Women became as important as readers and writers. Reading habits improved among them.
2. With an increase in literacy, women took great interest in reading and writing.
3. Many journals started emphasizing the importance of women’s education. Many magazines
and books were especially published for women.
4. The print culture gave women some amount of freedom to read and develop their own views
on various issues, especially those related to women.
(b) The Poor:
1. As the literacy rate improved in Europe as well as in India, printed material, especially for
entertainment, began to reach even the poor.
2. In England ‘penny magazines’ were carried by peddlers and sold for a penny, so that even
poor people could buy them.
3. Those who could not read could listen to the stories and folklore. These stories and folklore
could be read out to them by others.
4. Books could be hired on a nominal fee from some book owners. Even in India, very cheap
small books were brought to the market in 19th century Madras towns, which allowed poor
people to have access to print culture.
(c) Reformers:
1. Reformers used newspapers, journals and books to highlight the social evils prevailing in the
society.
2. Raja Ram Mohan Roy published the ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ to highlight the plight of widows.
3. From the 1860s, many Bengali women writers like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books
highlighting the experiences of women, about how women were imprisoned at home, kept in
ignorance, forced to do hard domestic labour and were treated unjustly by the men folk they
served.
Discuss
1. Why did some people in the eighteenth century Europe think that culture would bring
enlightenment and end despotism?
Ans: a) The spreading of new ideas after the coming of print culture, the ideas of scientists and
philosophers now became more accessible to the common people. Ancient and medieval
scientific texts were compiled and published.
b) Books as Medium of Progress By the eighteenth century, books became a medium of
spreading progress and enlightenment, which could change society and the world. It was also
believed that the books could liberate society from despotism and tyranny.
c) Writings of Scholars: The writings of thinkers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas
Paine and Voltaire were also widely printed and could gain popularity. Thus their ideas about
science, rationality and reasoning found their way into popular literature.
d) Scientific Discoveries: Maps and more accurate scientific diagrams were widely printed when
scientists like Issac Newton began to publish their discoveries. They could influence a much
wider circle of scientifically-minded readers.

2. Why did some people fear the effect of easily available printed books? Choose one
example from Europe and one from India.
Ans: Some people, especially from the upper class fear the effect of easily available printed
books due to the spread of literacy among the common people. They feared that they might
lose their position or authorities. Some people thought that it might lead to the spread of
rebellions and irreligious thoughts.
Example:
(i) In Europe, the Roman Catholic Church tried to curb the printed books through the Index of
Prohibited Books.
(ii) In India, the Vernacular Press Act imposed restrictions on Indian press and various local
newspapers.

3. What were the effects of the spread of print culture for poor people in nineteenth-
century India?
Ans:
1. Public libraries were set up from the early twentieth century, expanding access to books.
These libraries were located mostly in cities and towns and at times in prosperous villages. For
rich local patrons, setting up a library was a way of acquiring prestige.
2. From the late nineteenth century, issues of caste discrimination were written about in many
printed tracts and essays.
3. Jyotibha Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the
injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871).
4. In the twentieth century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in
Madras (better known as Periyar) wrote powerfully on caste, and their writings were read by
people all over India.
5. Local protest movements and sects also created a lot of popular journals and tracts,
criticising ancient scriptures and envisioning a new and just future.
6. At the very least, it made poorer people aware of their rights and their place in society and
Print media showed the way in which they can improve their lot in life.
4. Explain how the print culture assisted in the growth of nationalism in India.
Ans: Print culture assisted in the growth of nationalism in India in the following ways:
1. By the end of the 19th century, a large number of newspapers in Indian vernacular languages
were published, making it easier to circumvent the language barriers among the various ethnic
groups of Indians.
2. These newspapers published articles written by national leaders. Their ideas were
communicated to the masses through these newspapers.
3. The people of different communities and places were thus connected by print media.
Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating a pan-Indian identity.
4. The nationalist newspapers exposed the colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist
activities. As these were written in spoken languages of various regions, the common man
could easily understand the content.
5. For example, when Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Balagangadhar Tilak wrote
articles sympathising with them. He was arrested which provoked protest among the masses.
Thus it is clear that print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>THE END <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Compiled by: D S Jakhar

You might also like