Social Science

Class 10

Ch. The Print Culture

The First Printed Books

Q1. How was the print culture developed at first in East Asia?

A1. (1) The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea, from AD 594
onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.

(2) As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional Chinese ' accordian book’
was folded and stitched at the side.

(3) Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy.

Q2. Enumerate about the various stag es of the history of print culture in China.

A2.(1) The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed material.

(2) China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service
examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers.

(3) By the 17th century, as urban culture bloomed in China, now print was used not only by scholars but
by merchants and traders too in their daily life.

(4) Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives,
poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays.

(5) Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays.

(6) This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology. Western printing techniques and
mechanical presses were imported. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture.

Print in Japan

Q3. How had Japan contributed in the development of print culture?

A3.(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 and paper money.
(4) In mediaeval Japan, poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and
abundant.

(5) In the 18th century, Edo later known as Tokyo, illustrated collections of paintings depicted as elegant
urban culture, involving artists, courtesans and tea gatherings.

(6) Libraries and bookstores were packed with hand- printed material of various types.

Print Comes To Europe

Q4. Explain about the arrival of print culture to Europe.

OR

Give a brief description of the role of Marco Polo in the print culture of Europe.

A4.(1) In the 11th century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the same silk route.

(2) In 1295, Marco Polo brought the technology of woodblock printing to Italy.

(3) Luxury editions were still handwritten on very expensive Vellum meant for elite class. Merchants and
students bought the cheaper copies

(4) With increased demand, booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to many different
countries. Book fairs were organised and manuscripts was also organised in new ways.

(5) Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle so woodblock printing became more popular for
textiles, religious pictures etc .

Gutenberg and the Printing Press

Q5. Write a short note on Gutenberg printing press.

A5. (1) Gutenberg was the son of merchant and since childhood he had seen wine and olive presses.

(2) He learnt the art of polishing stones and also acquired the expertise to create lead moulds used for
making trinkets.

(3) The olive press provided the model for the printing press, and moulds were used for casting the
metal types for the letters of alphabets.

(4) By 1448, the first book he printed was the Bible. About 180 copies were printed and it took three
years to produce them.

Q6. Why didn’t the new technology entirely displace the existing art of producing book by hand?

A6. (1) In fact, printed books at first closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance and
layout. The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles.
(2) Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and illustrations were painted.

(3) 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.

The Print Revolution and its impact

A New Reading Public

Q7. How did print revolution create a new culture of reading?

A7. (1) With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books, time
and labour required and multiple copies could be produced at ease.

(2) Access to books created anew culture of reading. Earlier reading was restricted to the elites. Oral
culture was popular, sacred texts read out, ballads recited, folks takes narrated.

(3) Now books could reach out to wider sections of people but books could be read only by literates and
rate was very low. So oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

Q8. Who was Martin Luther? How had print culture helped him in the Protestant reformation?

A8. (1) Martin Luther was a religious reformer.

He wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many practices, rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.

(2) Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This led to the
division within the church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

(3) Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold more than 5000 copies.

(4) Luther said “ Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”, and helped spread the new
ideas that led to the reformation.

Print and Dissent

Q9. How did print culture generate various differences and dissent?

A9. (1) Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of
faith.

(2) In 16th century, Manocchio, a Miller in Italy read books and interpreted the message of the Bible,
which enraged Roman Catholic Church.
(2) When the Roman church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Manocchio was finally
executed.

(3) By the effects of popular readings and questioning, Roman Catholic Church imposed severe controls
over publishers and booksellers and prohibited such books from 1558.

The Reading Mania

Q10. What was the position of literacy rate in Europe on the eve of the 18th century? How did it rise in
this period?

OR

Examine the reasons for a virtual reading mania in Europe in the 18 th century.

A10. (1) On the eve of 18th century, literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe.

(2)Churches of different denominations set up schools carrying literacy to peasants and artisans.

(3) As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual mania. People wanted
books to read and printers produced books in ever increasing numbers.

Q11. What were the new forms of print and literature emerged in the 18th century?

A11. (1) New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences.

(2) Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages, carrying little books for sale.

(3) There were almanacs or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folktales.

(4) In England,Penny Chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars know as chapmen, and sold for a penny,
so that even the poor could buy them.

(5) In France, were the ‘Biliotheque Bleue’, which were low- priced small books printed on poor quality
paper and bound in cheap blue covers.

(6) There were books on romances and on histories.

(7) The periodical press developed combining information about current affairs with entertainment.

(8) Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade.

(9) The ideas of scientists and philosophers became more accessible to the common people. Scientists
like Issac Newton began to publish their discoveries to much wider circle.

(10) The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely
printed and read.
 ‘ Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world'

Q12. How did the print revolution and books become the means to spread enlightenment against
tyranny and despotism?

A12. (1) By the mid 19th century, there was a common conviction that books were a means of spreading
progress and enlightenment.

(2) Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny.

(3) Louise- Sebastien Mercier, a novelist declared the printing press the most powerful engine of
progress and public opinion that will sweep despotism.

(4) In Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading.

Print culture and the French revolution

Q13. Why did some historians think that print culture created the basis for the French revolution?

A13. Some following arguments for the contribution of print culture in the French revolution are as
follows:

(1) Print popularised the idea of the Enlightenment thinkers. Their writings provided a critical
commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism. The writings of Voltaire, Rousseau were
read widely.
(2) Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. Within this public culture, new ideasof
social revolution came into being.
(3) By the 1780s, there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their
morality. It raised the questions about the existing social order.
(4) Cartoon and caricatures also helped in this process.

The Nineteenth century

Children, Women and Workers

Q14. Explain how did reading become important for children, Women and Workers in the 19th
century.

A14. Children

(1) As primary education became compulsory, production of school textbooks became critical for
publishing industry.
(2) Children press was set up in France in 1857. They printed literature devoted to children, old fairy
tales and folktales.
(3) The Grimm Brothers collected stories and edited before publishing to avoid vulgar texts not
suitable for the children.
 Women
(1) Women became important readers as well as writers and some of the women writers
were Jane Austen,the Bronte sisters, George Eliot.
(2) Their writings became important in defining a new type of women: a person with will,
strength of personality, determination and the power to think.
(3) Penny magazines were especially for women for teaching proper behaviour and
housekeeping.

Workers

(1) In the 19th century, lending Libraries in England became instruments for educating white
collar workers, artisans and lower- middle class people.
(2) Sometimes self-educated working class people wrote for themselves
(3) Workers had some time for Self- improvement and self-expression. They wrote political
tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.

Further Innovations

Q15. Elucidate about the various innovations in the field of print- culture by the late 18th century in
Europe.

A15. (1) Through the 19th century, there were a series of innovations in printing technology. Richard
M.Hoe of Newyork had perfected the power driven cylindrical press, capable of printing 8000 sheets per
hour, especially useful for newspapers.

(2) The offset- press was developed which could print up to six colours at a time.

(3) Electrically operated presses were also accelerated printing operations.

(4) Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and
photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.

Q16. How did printers and publishers develop new strategies to sell their products in Europe in 19th
century?

A16. (1) Nineteenth -century periodicals serialised important novels, which gave birth to a particular way
of writing novels.

(2) In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling series.

(3) The dust-cover or the book jacket is also a 20th century innovation.

(4) To sustain buying, during Great depression they brought out cheap paperback editions.
 India and the World of Print

Manuscripts Before the Age of Print

Q17. Discuss about the old and rich tradition of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print
culture in India.

A17. (1) India had a great and rich tradition of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian as
well as in various vernacular languages.

(2) Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper and pages were sometimes
beautifully illustrated.

(3) They would be either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.

(4) Manuscripts however, were highly expensive and fragile. They had to be handled carefully, and they
could be read easily as the script was written in different styles.

(5) In pre- colonial period in Bengal students learnt to write, teachers dictated portions of texts from
memory and students wrote them down in primary schools.

Print Comes To India

Q18. Throw some light on the arrival of printing press to India.

A18. (1) The Printing press came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16th century. By 1674,
about 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and Kanara languages

(2) Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713 the first Malayalam book
was printed by them.

(3) The English language press did not grow in India till quite late even though East India company began
to import presses.

Q19. How did English printing began in India? Explain.

A19. (1) From 1780, James Augustus, Hickey began to edit the Bengal- Gazette a weekly magazine that
described itself as ‘a commercial paper open to all but influenced b none’. So it was a private English
enterprise that began English printing in India

(2) Hickey published a lot of advertisements including import and sale of slaves, lots of gossip about
company’s senior officials in India.

(3) Enraged by this, Governor general Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey and encouraged company’s
sanctioned news and information to be published to protect the image of colonial government.
(4) By the end of 18th century, a number of newspapers and journals appeared to 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, who was close to Rammohan Roy.

Religious Reform and Public Debated

Q20. Discuss about all the contribution of print-culture, which have brought reforms to the religious
and social ideas in the early 19th century.

A20. (1) Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society and offered new
interpretations of the beliefs of different religions.

(2) This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious reformers and Hindu orthodoxy
matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood, idolatry etc.

(3) Rammohan Roy published the ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy
commissioned the 'Samachar Chandrika' to oppose his opinion.

(4) In 1822, two Persian newspapers ‘Jam-i- jahan-Nama’ and ‘Shamsul Akhbar’ and a newspaper, the
‘Bombay samachar' made its appearance.

(5) Muslim ulamas were feared that colonial rulers will encourage conversions, change the Muslim
personal laws.

(6) To counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persians and Urdu translations of
holy scriptures and printed religious newspapers and tracts.

(7) The Deoband seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands of Fatwas explaining the meanings of
Islamic doctrines and different interpretations of faith. Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in
public.

(8) Among Hindus too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in the vernacular
languages. The first print of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, came out from Calcutta in 1810.

(9) From the 1880s the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay
published numerous religious texts in vernaculars so that they could be read out to large groups of
illiterate men and women. Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating Pan- Indian
identities.

New Forms of Publication

Q21. “ Printing created an appetite for new kinds of writing “. Explain the statement with suitable
examples.

OR

Discuss about the new forms of publications emerged by the end of 19th century in Europe.
A21. ( 1) As people wanted to see their own lives, experiences and emotions, the novel, a literary form
ideally catered to this need, developed in Europe.

(2) Indian forms and styles opened up new world of experience and gave a vivid sense of diversities to
human lives

(3) Other forms of literature, lyrics, short stories, essays about social and political matters developed.

(4) By the end of 19th century, a new visual culture developed and now visual images could be easily
reproduced in multiple copies.

(5) Painters like Raja Ravi Verma produced images for mass circulation.

(6) Poor woodblock makers set up shops near the letterpresses and were employed by print shops.

(7) Cheap prints and calendars were now easily available in bazaar and began shaping ideas about
modernity, tradition, religion and politics.

(8) By 1870s Caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals, newspapers commenting on
social and political issues. There were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists as well as nationalist
cartoons criticising imperial rule.

Women and Print

Q22. Enumerate about all the influences of the print-culture on the lives of women in India. Support
your answer with examples.

OR

Discuss about the contribution of women for their development in society through print-culture in
India

A22. (1) Women’s reading increased enormously in middle-class homes as liberal husbands and fathers
began educating their womenfolk at home.

(2) Many journals began carrying writing and syllabus for home-based schooling.

(3) Some conservative Hindus believed that literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that
educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.

• In East Bengal, Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox family , learnt to read
in the secrecy of her kitchen, later she wrote her own autobiography ‘Amar Jiban’, Which was
the first full- length autobiography published in Bengali language.

(5) From the 1860s, few Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books on the the hardships and
ignorant lives of women.

(6) In 1880s, in present day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote about the
miserable lives of Hindu upper-caste women especially widows.
(7) A women in a Tamil novel expressed what reading meant for women who were so greatly confined
by social regulations.

(8) Hindi printing began seriously only from the 1870s in which they discussed issues like women’s
education, widowhood, widow remarriage and national movement.

(9) In Punjab from the 20th century, Ram Chaddha published the fast-selling Istri Jeevan Vichaar to teach
how women to be Obedient wives. The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar
message.

(10) In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta – the Battala was devoted to the printing of popular
books. Pedlars took the Battala publications to homes, enabling women to read them in their leisure
time.

(11) In 1926, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, a literary figure condemned men for withholding
education from women in the name of religion.

Print and the Poor People

Q23. How did print- culture help poor people in their daily life in India.

OR

“ Print- Culture had opened the way to raise the voice against caste system and class system in the
society in India”. Explain the sentence with examples.

A23. (1) In 19th century, availability of very cheap small books in the market helped poor people to buy
and read the books easily.

(2) Public libraries were setup to expand the access to books.

(3) From the late 19th century, issues of caste discrimination began to be written in printed form. Jyotiba
Phule, the Maratha pioneer of low caste protest movements wrote about the injustices of the caste
system in his book Gulamgiri (1871). Dr B.R Ambedkar, Periyar Ramaswamy Naicker wrote powerfully
on caste system.

(4) Workers were also exploited, Kashibaba, kanpur millworker, wrote and published Chhote aur Bade
ka sawal to show linka between caste and class exploitation. Another millworker Sudarshan Chakr
wrote a collection of Sacchi Kavitayan.

(5) By 1930s, Banglore millworkers set up libraries like Bombay millworkers on the sponsorship of social
reformers who tried to restrict drinking, to bring literacy and to propagate idea of nationalism among
workers.

Print and Censorship

Q24. Why did the Calcutta supreme court give order to control press freedom?

OR

Discuss about the censorship imposed on the printing press and its causes in India by 1820.

A24. Through printing, criticism was shown against misrule and injustice of company and its officers. The
company was worried that such criticism might be destroy their trade monopoly in India.

(2) By 1820s, the Calcutta supreme court passes certain regulations to control press freedom. Company
began encouraging publication of newspapers that would celebrate British rule.

(3) In 1835, after urgent petitions by editors of English and vernacular newspapers, Governor General
Lord William Bentinck agreed to revise press laws, Thomas Macaulay formulated new rules.

(4) After the revolt of 1857, in 1878,The Vernacular Act was passed, it provided the government with
extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in vernacular press. On the violation of rules, vernacular
presses would be seized and machines would be confiscated.

(5) Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspaper grew in large numbers. They reported to
colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist movement. For eg. When Punjab revolutionaries were
deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his paper Kesari.
Print- Culture contributed a lot in development of nationalist movement in India.

Q25. Explain about the Erasmus’s idea of the printed books.

A25. (1) Erasmus was a Latin scholar and Catholic reformer, who criticized the excesses of Catholicism,
but kept his distance from Martin Luther.

(2) He was critical of the print medium. He believed that though some books do provide worthwhile
knowledge, others are simply a Bane for scholarship.

(3) Erasmus accused printers of publishing books that were not mere trifling but “ stupid, slanderous,
scandalous, raving, irreligious and seditious”.

(4) He also felt that large numbers of such books reduce the value of the quality writings.

* Kitagawa Utamaro, was born in Edo( later known as Tokyo) 1753 and widely known for his
contributions to an art form called Ukiyo ( Pictures of the floating world) or depiction of ordinary
human experiences, especially urban ones

* Raja Ravi Verma was related to Kerala royal family and often referred to as the Father of the modern
Indian art. He is widely known for his realistic portrayal of Indian Gods, Goddesses and mythological
characters.

* Three powerful vehicles of cultivating public opinion by Gandhi are Liberty of speech, Liberty of press
and Freedom of association.
All the Best dear Children👍

Divya Pant