PRINT CULTURE NOTES

EARLIEST PRINT TECHNOLOGY

1. The earliest kind of print technology developed in China, Japan and Korea called hand
printing.
2. From A.D. 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper against the inked
surface of woodblocks.

16TH CENTURY CHINA

1. The imperial China was, for a long time, the major producer of printed material.
2. Textbooks for the Chinese Civil Service Examination were printed in vast numbers under
the sponsorship of the Imperial State.
3. So, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of
print.

17TH CENTURY CHINA

1. By 17th Century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified.
2. Print was no longer used just by scholar-officials.
3. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information.
4. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity.
5. Rich women began to read and many women began publishing their poetry and plays.

19TH CENTURY CHINA

1. This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology.
2. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the late 19 th
Century.
3. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture. From hand printing, there was now a
gradual shift to mechanical printing.

PRINT CULTURE IN JAPAN

1. Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand printing technology into Japan around
AD 768-770.
2. The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing
six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.
3. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards, paper money, etc.
4. Printing of visual material led to interesting publishing practices.
5. Books were written on women, musical instruments, tea ceremony, etc.
DRAWBACKS OF HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPTS
1. Production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for
books.
2. Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.
3. Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle and could not be carried around or read
easily. Their circulation, therefore, remained limited.

PRINT CULTURE IN EUROPE

1. In the 11th Century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the Silk Route.
2. Paper made possible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes.
3. Marco Polo, an Italian explorer, brought with him the technology of woodblock printing
from China.
4. Now Italians began producing books with woodblocks and soon the technology spread to
other parts of Europe.
5. As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to
different countries and book fairs were held at different places.

PRINT REVOLUTION
1. The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing lead to the Print Revolution.
2. It was not just a development, a new way of producing books; it transformed the lives of
people, changing their relationship to information and knowledge and with institutions
and authorities.
3. It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things.

HEARING AND READING PUBLIC INTERMINGLED

1. The transition from hearing public to reading public was not simple. Books could be read
only by the literate people.
2. Literacy Rate in most European countries was very low till the 20 th Century.
3. To reach and convince common people to welcome the books, publishers had to keep in
mind that even those who did not read could certainly enjoy listening to books being
read out.
4. Printers published popular ballads and folk tales and illustrated with beautiful pictures.
These were then sung and recited at public gatherings.
5. Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transferred. As a result,
the hearing public and the reading public became intermingled.

READING MANIA
1. Increase in literacy rate:
(a) In 17th in 18th Century, literacy rates went up.
(b) Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, thus providing literacy to
peasants and artisans.
2. New forms of literature:
(a) New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences.
b) There were almanacs or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folk tales.
c) In England, Penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars, known as chapmen and sold
them for a penny, so that even the poor could buy them.
(d) In France were the ‘Biliotheque Bleue’ which were low-prices small books, printed on
poor quality paper and bound in cheap blue covers.

3. The Periodical Press:

(a) The periodical press combined the information of current affairs with entertainment.
(b) Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade as well as news of
developments in other places.

4. The ideas of scientists and philosophers:

(a) The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common
people.
(b) When scientists like Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could
influence a greater number of scientifically minded readers.
(c) The writings of thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, etc., were also widely printed and
read.

IMPACT OF PRINT ON RELIGION IN EUROPE

MARTIN LUTHER – PROTESTANT REFORMATION:

1. In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote 95 Theses criticizing many of the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
2. A printed copy of this was pasted on a Church door in Wittenberg and challenged the
Church to debate his ideas
3. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This led
to a division within the Church and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
4. Luther’s translation of THE NEW TESTAMENT sold 5000 copies within a few weeks and
the second edition appeared within 3 months.

MENOCCHIO:
1. Print and popular religious literature encouraged individual interpretations of faith, even
among little educated working people.
2. Menocchio, a miller in Italy, began to read books that were available in his locality.
3. He re-interpreted the message of The Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation
that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.
4. When the Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Menocchio was
arrested twice and finally executed.
5. The Roman Church, troubled by such effects of popular readings and questioning of faith,
imposed severe restrictions over publishers and book-sellers and began to maintain an
INDEX OF PROHIBITTED BOOKS from 1558.

“PRINT CULTURE CREATED THE CONDITION WITHIN WHICH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
OCCURRED” EXPLAIN.

PRINT POPULARIZED THE IDEAS OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT THINKERS:

1. Their writings criticized tradition, superstition and despotism.
2. They argued for the rule of reason rather than custom.
3. They attacked the authority of the Church and the despotic power of the State.

PRINT CREATED A NEW CULTURE OF DIALOGUE AND DEBATE:

1. All values, norms and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by a public that had
become aware of the power of reason and questioned the existing ideas and beliefs.
2. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into being.

CRITICISM OF ROYALTY AND THEIR MORALITY:

1. Questions were raised about the existing social order.
2. Cartoons and caricatures suggested that the monarchy remained absorbed only in
sensual pleasures while the common suffered immense hardships.
3. Such writings led to the growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy.

INNOVATIONS IN PRINTING TECHNOLOGY DURING 19TH CENTURY

1. Richard M. Hoe had developed the power-driven cylindrical press which could print 8000
sheets per hour. This press was useful for printing newspapers.
2. The offset press was developed which could print up to 6 colours at a time.
3. Electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations.
4. Other developments followed:
(a) Methods of feeding paper improved.
(b) The quality of plates became better.
(c) Automatic paper reel was used.
(d) Photo-electric controls of the colour register were introduced.
5. All these mechanical improvements transformed the appearance of printed texts.

L.S. MERCIER
1. Louise-Sebastien Mercier was a novelist in 18th Century France.
2. He said, ‘The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is
the force that will sweep despotism away’
3. Convinced of the power of print, he said, ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!
Tremble before the virtual writer.’

PRINT CULTURE IN INDIA

MANUSCRIPTS IN INDIA BEFORE THE AGE OF PRINT

FEATURES:
1. India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic,
Persian as well as in various vernacular languages.
2. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on hand-made paper.
3. They would be either pressed between wooden covers or stitched together to ensure
preservation.

DRAWBACKS:
1. Manuscripts were highly expensive and fragile.
2. They had to be handled carefully.
3. They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.

PRINT CULTURE COMES TO INDIA

1. The printing press first came to Goa with the Portuguese missionaries in the mid-16th
Century.
2. Jesuit Priests learnt Konkani and printed several tracts.
3. In 1579, Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in Kochin.
4. By 1710, Dutch Protestant Missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts.
5. In 1713, the first Malayalam book was printed by the Catholic priests.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE PRESS IN INDIA

1. From 1880, James Augustus Hickey, began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly English
magazine.
2. Hickey published a lot of advertisements, including those that related to the import and
sale of slaves. But he also published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior officials
in India.
3. Enraged by this, Governor General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey and encouraged
the publication of officially sanctioned newspapers to prevent any damage to the image
of the colonial Government
4. By the close of the 18th Century, a number of newspapers and journals appeared in print.
5. There were Indians too who began to publish Indian newspapers. The first to appear was
the weekly Bengal Gazette brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya.
IMPACT OF PRINT CULTURE ON WOMEN IN INDIA

1. Lives and feelings of women began to be written clearly.

2. Women’s reading, therefore, increased enormously in middle-class homes.
3. Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their women folk at home and sent them
to schools when women’s school were set up in the cities and towns.
4. Many journals explained why women should be educated.
5. But not all families were liberal. Conservative Hindus believed a literate girl would be
widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading
Urdu romances.

WOMEN WRITERS
1. Rashsundari Debi – Wrote her autobiography AMAR JIBAN in 1876. It was the first full-
length autobiography published in Bengali language.
2. 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 treated unjustly by the very people they served.
3. Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai – Wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste
Hindu women, especially widows.

IMPACT OF PRINT CULTURE ON THE POOR IN INDIA

1. Very cheap small books were brought to markets of Madras towns and sold at cross-
roads, allowing poor people to buy them.
2. Public libraries were setup, expanding the access to books.
3. These libraries were located mostly in cities and towns and, at times, in prosperous
villages.
4. Workers in factories were too overworked and lacked the education to write.
(a) KASHIBABA, a Kanpur millworker, wrote and published CHHOTE AUR BADE KA SAWAAL
in 1938 to show the link between caste and class exploitation.
(b) The poems of another Kanpur millworker who wrote under the name of SUDARSHAN
CHAKRA between 1935 – 1955, were brought together and published in a collection
called SACCHI KAVITAYAN.
5. By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers setup libraries to educate themselves,
following the example of Bombay workers. These were sponsored by social reformers
who tried to restrict excessive drinking among them to bring literacy and, sometimes, to
propagate the message of nationalism.

VERNACULAR PRESS ACT OF 1878

1. After the Revolt of 1857, as vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist,
enraged Englishmen demanded to establish control on the native press.
2. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed. It provided the government with extensive
rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press.
3. From now on, the government kept regular track of the vernacular newspapers published
in different provinces.
4. When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned and if the warning
was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery confiscated.
5. Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in number in all parts of India.
They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities.