Print Culture & Modern World Notes Grade 10 (1) 2
Print Culture & Modern World Notes Grade 10 (1) 2
Print Culture & Modern World Notes Grade 10 (1) 2
GRADE: X HISTORY
2. Why did the volume of print increase in China in the early period? Or How did China become a
major producer of printed materials for a long time?
i. The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed materials. China
possessed a huge bureaucratic system, which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations.
ii. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial
state.
iii. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and it increased the
volume of print.
3. How did a new print culture develop in China? OR What changes occurred in print culture in the
17th century in China? OR How was print culture influenced by the rise of cities in China?
i. By the seventeenth century, as urban culture flourished in China, the uses of print diversified. Print
was no longer used just by scholar-officials.
ii. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information.
iii. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives,
poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays.
iv. Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of
scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives.
v. The development of new reading culture in China and the development of a new printing technology
helped the development of print culture.
vi. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the late nineteenth century as
Western powers established their outposts in China.
4. Give any three reasons favouring shift from hand printing to mechanical printing in China.
Answer is same as above.
6. Describe the development of print technology in Europe. Or Who was Marco Polo? What was his
contribution in print culture?
i. In the eleventh century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the silk route. Paper made possible the
production of manuscripts possible, carefully written by scribes.
ii. Then, in 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer, returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China.
Marco Polo brought Chinese technology of woodblock printing. back with him. Now Italians began
producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.
iii. Luxury editions were still handwritten on very expensive vellum, meant for aristocratic circles and
rich monastic libraries which ridiculed at printed books as cheap vulgarities. Merchants and students in
the university towns bought the cheaper printed copies.
7. Why did wood block printing become popular in Europe? Or What were the drawback of the
handwritten manuscripts?
i. The production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books.
ii. Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.
iii. Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or read easily. Their
circulation therefore remained limited. With the growing demand for books, woodblock printing
gradually became more and more popular.
iv. By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks were being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing
cards, and religious pictures with simple, brief texts.
9. Describe the role of scribes in the productions of books in the medieval period.
i. In the eleventh century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the silk route. Paper made the production
of manuscripts possible, carefully written by scribes. Wealthy and influential patrons employed these
scribes to copy books. ii. Wood- block printing could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand of books, so
even the book sellers employed large number of scribes. More than 50 scribes often worked for one
book seller. 10. How did Guttenberg develop the printing press? i. Gutenberg was the son of a merchant
and grew up on a large agricultural estate. From his childhood, he had seen wine and olive presses.
ii. Subsequently, he learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the
expertise to create ‘lead moulds’ used for making jewellery.
iii. Drawing on this knowledge, Gutenberg adapted existing technology to design his innovation. The
olive press provided the model for the printing press, and moulds were used for casting the metal types
for the letters of the alphabet.
iv. By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. The first book he printed was the Bible. About 180 copies
were printed and it took three years to produce them. By the standards of the time, this was fast
production.
11. What were the features of the books printed using the new technology by Guttenberg?
i. The printed books at first closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance and layout.
ii. The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles.
iii. Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and illustrations were painted.
iv. In the books printed for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank on the printed page. Each
purchaser could choose the design and decide on the painting school that would do the illustrations.
12. Examine the growth of printing during the hundred years between 1450 and 1550 in Europe.
i) A number of printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe during this period.
ii) Printers from Germany traveled to other countries, seeking work and helping start new presses. As
the number of printing presses grew book production boomed.
iii) The second half of the 15th century saw 20 million copies of printed books flooding the market in
Europe. The number went up to about 200 million in the 16th century.
15. What did the publishers do to persuade common people to welcome the printed books?
The literacy rate in most European countries was very low until the twentieth century. Therefore to
persuade common people to welcome the printed books the printers began publishing popular ballads
and folk tales, and such books would be profusely illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and
recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns.
16. How was the oral culture and print culture complimentary to each other? Or How did oral culture
enter print and how was the printed material transmitted orally?
i. Earlier, reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral culture. They
heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited, and folk tales narrated. Knowledge was transferred orally.
ii. Before the age of print, books were not only expensive but were a few in number. People collectively
heard a story, or saw a performance. These were converted in to books. Now books could reach out to
wider sections of people. If earlier there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being.
iii. The literacy rate in most European countries was very low until the twentieth century. Therefore to
persuade common people to welcome the printed books the printers began publishing popular ballads
and folk tales, and such books would be profusely illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and
recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns. Thus print technology helped oral culture.
iv. Oral culture thus entered print and printed materials were orally transmitted. The line that separated
the oral and reading culture blurred and the hearing public and reading public became intermingled.
17. Why was the new printed literature criticized?
i. Not everyone welcomed the printed book, and those who did also had fears about it. Many were
anxious about the effects that the easier access to the printed word and the wider circulation of books,
could have on people’s minds.
ii. It was feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read then rebellious and
irreligious thoughts might spread. If that happened, the authority of ‘valuable’ literature would be
destroyed.
iii. Expressed by religious authorities and monarchs, as well as many writers and artists, this anxiety was
the basis of widespread criticism of the new printed literature that had begun to circulate.
18. Why did Martin Luther support print culture? OR How did print culture help Martin Luther
challenge the Catholic Church? Why?
i. In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther printed Ninety-Five theses criticizing many of the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church and posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It
challenged the Church to debate his ideas.
ii. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This led to a division
within the Church and to the beginning of protestant reformation.
iii. Deeply grateful to print, Luther said, ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one’
because print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to
the Reformation.
iv. Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and
discussion.
20. How did print culture lead to the growth of dissenting ideas?
i. Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and
discussion.
ii. Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of faith
even among little-educated working people.
iii. Print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the
Reformation.
21. Why did Roman Catholic Church turn against print culture and what did they do? OR Why did the
Catholic Church maintain an index of prohibited books from 1558?
i. In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther printed Ninety-Five theses criticizing many of the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church and posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It
challenged the Church to debate his ideas.
ii. Manocchio a miller in Italy began to read books that were available in his locality. He reinterpreted
the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation which was against the Roman
Catholic Church. He was executed.
iii. The Roman Church, troubled by such effects of popular readings and questionings of faith, imposed
severe controls over publishers and booksellers and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books
from 1558.
22. How did print culture help develop a reading mania among the people in Europe?
i. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe.
Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to peasants and artisans.
ii. By the end of the eighteenth century, in some parts of Europe literacy rates were as high as 60 to 80
per cent. As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading mania. People
wanted books to read and printers produced books in ever increasing numbers.
iii. New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences. Booksellers employed
peddlers who roamed around villages, carrying little books for sale. There were almanacs or ritual
calendars, along with ballads and folktales. But other forms of reading matter, largely for entertainment,
began to reach ordinary readers as Well.
iv. Then there were the romances, printed on four to six pages, and the more substantial ‘histories’
which were stories about the past. Books were of various sizes, serving many different purposes and
interests.
v. Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade, as well as news of developments
in other places. Similarly, the ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the
common people. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and maps and
scientific diagrams were widely printed.
vi. When scientists like Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could influence a much
wider circle of scientifically minded readers.
vii. The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely
printed and read. Thus, their ideas about science, reason and rationality found their way into popular
literature.
23. What was the opinion of Louise-Sebastien Mercier about the printing press?
i. Louise-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in eighteenth-century France, declared: ‘The printing press is the
most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.’
ii. In many of Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading. They read books, are lost
in the world books, and become enlightened in the process.
iii. 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!’
24. What was the common conviction about books by the mid-eighteenth 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, and
herald a time when reason and intellect would rule. (eg. Point i above.)
25. Why did some people in the 18th century Europe think that print culture would bring
enlightenment and end despotism? (Write the previous two answers and add point iv answer 14)
26. What are the three types of arguments to prove that print culture created conditions for French
revolution?
i. First: print popularized the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. Collectively, their writings provided a
critical commentary on tradition, superstition, and despotism. They argued for the rule of reason rather
than custom and demanded that everything be judged through the application of reason and rationality.
ii. They attacked the sacred authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state, thus eroding
the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition. The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read
widely; and those who read these books saw the world through new eyes, eyes that were questioning,
critical and rational.
iii. Second: print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All values, norms and institutions were
re-evaluated and discussed by a public that had become aware of the power of reason and recognized
the need to question existing ideas and beliefs. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution
came into being.
iv. Third: By the 1780s, there were a number of books that mocked the royalty and criticized their
morality. In the process, it raised questions about the existing social order. Cartoons and caricatures
typically suggested that the monarchy remained absorbed in luxurious life while the common people
suffered immense hardships. This literature circulated underground and led to the growth of hostile
sentiments against the monarchy.
27. What was the counter argument regarding the role of print culture in the French Revolution?
There is no doubt that print helps the spread of ideas. However, we must remember that people did not
read just one kind of literature. If they read the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau, they were also exposed
to monarchical and Church propaganda. They were not influenced directly by everything they read or
saw. They accepted some ideas and rejected others. They interpreted things their own way. Print did
not directly shape their minds, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.
28. How did print culture influence women, children and workers in the 19th century in Europe?
i. As primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century, children became an
important category of readers. Production of school textbooks became critical for the publishing
industry. A children’s press, devoted to literature for children alone, was set up in France in 1857. This
press published new works as well as old fairy tales and folk tales.
ii. Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for
women, and there were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping. When novels began to
be written in the nineteenth century, women were seen as important readers. Some of the best-known
novelists were women: Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot. etc. Their writings became
important in defining a new type of woman: a person with will, strength of personality, determination
and the power to think.
iii. In the nineteenth century, lending libraries in England became instruments for educating white-collar
workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people. Sometimes, self-educated working class people wrote
for themselves. After the working day was gradually shortened from the mid-nineteenth century,
workers had some time for self-improvement and self-expression. They wrote political tracts and
autobiographies in large numbers.
30. What were the major innovations that improved printing technology?
i. By the late eighteenth century, the press came to be made out of metal.
ii. By the mid-nineteenth century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power driven
cylindrical press. This was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour. This press was particularly useful
for printing newspapers.
iii. In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six colours at a
time.
iv. From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations.
A series of other developments followed. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates
became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.
v. In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling Series. The dust
cover or the book jacket is also a twentieth-century innovation. With the onset of the Great Depression
in the 1930s, publishers feared a decline in book purchases. To sustain buying, they brought out cheap
paperback editions.
31. State any two strategies developed by printers and publishers to sell their products.
i. They serialized popular novels to arouse interest among readers. They compiled traditional folk tales
gathered from peasants. What they collected was edited before the stories were published in a
collection in 1812.
ii. In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling Series. The dust
cover or the book jacket is also a twentieth-century innovation.
iii. With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, publishers feared a decline in book purchases.
To sustain buying, they brought out cheap paperback editions.
32. How were the ideas and information written before the age of print in India? Or Write a short note
on the tradition of manuscripts in India. Why was it not used in everyday life?
i. India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, as well
as in various vernacular languages. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.
Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated. They would be either pressed between wooden covers or
sewn together to ensure preservation. Manuscripts continued to be produced even after the
introduction of print, down to the late nineteenth century.
ii. Manuscripts, however, were highly expensive and fragile. They had to be handled carefully, and they
could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles. So manuscripts were not widely
used in everyday life.
iii. Teachers dictated portions texts from memory and students wrote them down. Many, thus became
literate without ever reading any kind of texts. Why were manuscripts not widely used in everyday life?
Give three reasons.
34. Who was James Augustus Hickey? Why was he persecuted by the British?
James Augustus Hickey was the editor of the Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine from 1780. Hickey
published a lot of advertisements, including those, related to the import and sale of slaves. But he also
published a lot of gossip about the East India Company’s senior officials in India. Enraged by this,
Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey, and encouraged the publication of officially
sanctioned newspapers that could counter the flow of information that damaged the image of the
colonial government.
35. What role did print culture play on public debates on religious issues?
i. There were intense debates around religious issues from the early nineteenth century. Different
groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different ways, and offered a variety
of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions
ii. Some criticized existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the arguments
of reformers. These debates were carried out in public and in print. Printed tracts and newspapers not
only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the nature of the debate. A wider public could now
participate in these public discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged through these
clashes of opinions.
36. What role did print culture play in the religious reform movements? Or How did religious
reformers make use of print culture to spread their ideas? Or What did the spread of print culture
mean to the reformers?
i. 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.
Reformers made use of newspapers to project the ill effects of superstitious beliefs. They spread
democratic ideals like liberty, equality and fraternity among the public.
ii. In Bengal, Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy
commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions.
iii. 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.
37. What were the steps taken by the ‘Ulemas’ to defend their religion?
i. The ‘Ulemas’ were Muslim theologians who feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion,
change the Muslim personal laws. To counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published
Persian and Urdu translations of Holy Scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts.
ii. 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.
iii. All through the nineteenth century, a number of Muslim sects and seminaries appeared, each with a
different interpretation of faith, each keen on enlarging its following and countering the influence of its
opponents. Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in public.
38. Name any two printing press established to publish Hindu religious texts in vernacular languages.
From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay
published numerous religious texts in vernaculars.
39. How and to what extent did print encourage reading Hindu religious text in Vernacular languages?
i. The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a sixteenth-century text, came out from
Calcutta in 1810. ii. By the mid-nineteenth century, cheap lithographic editions flooded north Indian
markets.
iii. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay
published numerous religious texts in vernaculars. iv. In their printed and portable form, these could be
read easily by the faithful at any place and time. They could also be read out to large groups of illiterate
men and women.
40. State any two results of using printed texts on religious matters.
i. Religious texts reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging discussions, debates and
controversies within and among different religions. ii. Print not only stimulated the publication of
conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also connected communities and people in different
parts of India. iii. Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.
iv. In their printed and portable form, these could be read easily by the faithful at any place and time.
They could also be read out to large groups of illiterate men and women.
41. Describe the development of visual culture in print media by the end of 19th century in India.
i. By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape. With the setting up of an
increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.
ii. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Poor wood engravers who made
woodblocks, set up shop near the letterpresses, and were employed by print shops.
iii. Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to
decorate the walls of their homes or places of work. These prints began shaping popular ideas about
modernity and tradition, religion and politics, and society and culture.
iv. By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers,
commenting on social and political issues. Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians’ fascination
with Western tastes and clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change. There were imperial
caricatures that ridiculed nationalists, as well as nationalist cartoons criticizing imperial rule.
42. What did women mean by the spread of print culture? OR How did the spread of print culture
improve the status of women in India in the 19th century?
i. The status of women improved in the Indian society. Lives and feelings of women began to be written
in particularly vivid and intense ways. Women’s reading, therefore, increased enormously in middle-
class homes.
ii. Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home, and sent them to schools
when women’s schools were set up in the cities and towns after the mid nineteenth century.
iii. Many journals began carrying writings by women, and explained why women should be educated.
They also carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading matter, which could be used for home-based
schooling.
iv. Many women writers were emerged. Auto biography of Amar Jiban was published in 1876 in Bengali
language.
v. Bengali women Kailashbhashini wrote books highlighting the experience of women.
vi. In Maharashtra Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote about miserable life of upper class
women especially widows.
43. Why did the conservatives among Hindus and Muslims prohibit education for women?
Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated
women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.
44. State two examples of rebel women who defied prohibition of education for women by the
conservative society?
i. A girl in a conservative Muslim family of north India secretly learnt to read and write in Urdu. Her
family wanted her to read only the Arabic Quran, which she did not understand. So she insisted on
learning to read a language that was her own.
ii. In East Bengal, in the early nineteenth century, 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. It was the first fulllength autobiography published in the
Bengali language. (Name the first auto biography published in Bengali language.)
45. Why did the British Government curtail the freedom of Press after 1857 in India?
The British Government curtailed the freedom of Press after 1857 in India because the vernacular
newspapers were becoming more and more nationalists after the revolt of 1857 Or The British feared
that the newspapers will publish articles that are harmful to British interests. Or. The British
Government curtailed the freedom of Press after 1857 in India to stop the spreading of nationalist ideas.
46. Describe any two popular themes on which women writers in England wrote in the 19th century.
The popular themes were the following:
i. Domestic life: In the 18th and 19th centuries novel began exploring the world of women their
emotions and identities their experiences and problems. The principal theme about women were
allowed to speak with authority was domestic life. They wrote their experience and got due recognition.
ii. Proper behavior and housekeeping: Penny magazines published between 1832 and 1835 were meant
for women. It was primarily aimed at the working class. There were manuals published, teaching proper
behaviour and housekeeping. iv. New type of women: Some of the best known novelists were women:
Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, and George Eliot etc. Their writings became important in defining a new
type of women– women with will power, strength with personality, determination and power to think.
They even supported feminist movements.