“I am grateful for ____________.

CLASS: X
SECTION: A-F
SUBJECT: SOCIAL SCIENCE
SESSION: 2023-24
POLITICAL SCIENCE CHAPTER 5; PRINT CULTURE AND THE MODERN WORLD
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

Q1. How was the increased demand for books fulfilled by the booksellers?
Ans. The booksellers tried to fulfill the increasing demand by:
a. Booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to many different countries.
b. Book fairs were organised for the reading section of the society at different places.
c. Large no. of scribes was employed by the booksellers to produce manuscripts.
Q2. State the importance of penny chapbooks.
Ans. Importance of penny chapbooks:
a. These books were carried by petty peddlers known as Chapmen providing door-to-door service.
b. These books were cheap so that the poor can buy them.
c. This created the environment of reading amongst the masses as it improved the accessibility of books.
Q3. Explain the visual culture (picture, calendar, cartoon, etc.) in print, which developed in the 19th century.
Ans. Role of visual culture in developing print in 19th century India:
a. With the setting up of an increasing no. of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple
copies. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation.
b. Cheap prints and calendars were easily available in bazaars.
c. Caricatures and cartoons began to be published in newspapers mocking the inclination of Indians toward
Western culture and clothes.
Q4. How did the Indians copy and preserve their manuscripts?
Ans. The Indians copy and preserve their manuscripts by:
a. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or handmade paper.
b. Pages were beautifully illustrated and pressed between wooden covers.
c. Sewn together to ensure preservation.
Q5. Write a short note on Ghor Kali.
Ans. Ghor Kali (The End of the World) - is a coloured woodcut from the late nineteenth century.
a. The artist’s vision of the destruction of proper family relations.
b. Here the husband is dominated by his wife, perched on his shoulder.
c. He is cruel towards his mother, dragging her like an animal, by the noose.
Q6. Explain the three strategies the printers and publishers developed to sell their products in the 19th century.
Ans. The strategies developed by the printers and publishers to sell their products in the 19th century:
a. They introduced periodicals and serialised novels. The dust cover or the book jacket is also a 20th-century
innovation that increased the shelf life of books.
b. In the 1920s, in England they started selling popular works in cheap series called the Shilling series.
c. With the onset of the Great Depression, the publishers feared a decline in books purchase. To sustain buying,
they brought out cheap paper editions.
d. Booksellers employed peddlers to sell books. There were almanacs, ballads, folktales, etc., which also reached
ordinary readers.
e. In England, penny chapbooks were sold by Chapman. In France’s Bibliotheque Bleue, low-priced books were
sold so that even the poor could buy them.

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 “I am grateful for ____________.”

Q7. Write a short note on ‘The macabre dance’.

Ans. The macabre dance is a sixteenth-century print that shows how the fear of printing was dramatised in visual
representations of the time.
a. In this highly interesting woodcut, the coming of print is associated with the end of the world.
b. The interior of the printer’s workshop is the site of a dance of death.
c. Skeletal figures control the printer and his workers and define and dictate what is to be done and what is to be
produced.
Q8. Who was Menocchio? What did he do?
Ans. Menocchio was a miller in Italy.
a. He reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman
Catholic Church.
b. When the Roman Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Menocchio was executed.
Q9. Explain the significance of newspapers printed in the 18th century.
Ans. The significance of newspapers is as follows:
a. Carried information about wars, trading practices, and recent developments in other parts of the world.
b. Provided accessibility of ideas of scientists, philosophers, political leaders, and religious personalities.
c. Ancient and medieval scientific and religious texts were compiled and published.
d. They also circulated maps and scientific diagrams. E.g. – The ideas of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Rousseau were
printed.
Q10. Gandhiji said that the fight for Swaraj is a fight for the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of
association. Give reasons.
Ans. Gandhiji believed that the force of public opinion would end British rule in India.
a. This public opinion could be obtained through the printing press.
b. He believed that the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association were the three powerful
vehicles of expression and cultivating public opinion.
Q11. “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writers!” Explain.
Ans. Louise- Sebastien Mercier said: ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’
a. By the mid-18th century, people started believing that books were a means of spreading progress and
enlightenment.
b. Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a
time when reason and intellect would rule.
c. Louise-Sebastien Mercier said that the printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion
is the force that will sweep despotism away.
d. He was an Italian novelist. In many of Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading and
become enlightened in the process.
e. He was convinced of the power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism.

Q12. Write a short note on Bengal Gazette.

Ans. Bengal Gazette was a weekly published by James Augustus Hickey from 1780.
a. It was a private English enterprise that began English printing in India.
b. Hickey published a lot of advertisements, including those that related to the import and sale of slaves.
c. He also published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior officials in India.
d. Enraged by criticism and unsanctioned reports, Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey.

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