Session 2024-25, Class X

CHAPTER-7 Print Culture and the Modern World

Unit –VI
1. Explain the features of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print in India.
(a) India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic,
Persian, as well as in various vernacular languages.
(b) Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.
(c) Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated.
(d) They would be either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure
preservation.
(e) Manuscripts continued to be produced till well after the introduction of print, down to
the late nineteenth century.

2. Describe the coming of print technology in India.

OR
Examine the role of missionaries in the growth of press in India.
(a) The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-sixteenth
century.
(b) Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed several tracts. By 1674, about 50 books had
been printed in the Konkani and in Kanara languages.
(c) Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713 the first
Malayalam book was printed by them. By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries had
printed 32 Tamil texts, many of them translations of older works.

3. Why did James Augustus Hickey claim that the Bengal Gazette was a commercial paper
open to all, but influenced by none? Explain.
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 by none’.
(a) It was private English enterprise, proud of its independence from colonial influence,
that began English printing in India.
(b) 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.
 (c) 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.

Unit-VII
4. What did the spread of print culture in India in the 19th century mean to various
communities? Explain with examples.
OR
‘Print not only stimulated the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities but
it also connected communities and people in different parts of India.’ Examine the
statement.
Ans.
(a) 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.
(b) In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a
variety of arguments. To reach a wider audience, the ideas were printed in the everyday,
spoken language of ordinary people.
(c) Ram Mohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy
commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions.
(d) 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.
(e) In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties.
They 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.

Unit- VIII
5. How did a new visual culture take shape in the end of the 19th century?
By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape.
(a) With the setting up of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be
easily reproduced in multiple copies.
(b) Poor wood engravers who made woodblocks set up shop near the letterpresses, and
were employed by print shops.
(c) 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.

6. What was represented in cartoons and caricatures in India?

 (a) By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and
newspapers, commenting on social and political issues.
(b) Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians’ fascination with Western tastes and
clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change.
(c) There were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as nationalist cartoons
criticising imperial rule.

7. What were the views of conservative families regarding women education?

(a) Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed
(b) Conservative Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading
Urdu romances.
(c) Sometimes, rebel women defied such prohibition.

8. How printing technology did gave women a chance to share their feeling with the world?
Since social reforms and novels had already created a great interest in women’s lives and
emotions, there was also an interest in what women would have to say about their own
lives.
(a) From the 1860s, a few Bengali women 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 treated unjustly by the very
people they served.
(b) In the 1880s, in present-day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote
with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially
widows.

9. How did print culture affect women in the 19th century India? Explain
(a) Soon, a large segment of Print culture was devoted to the education of women. In the
early twentieth century, journals, written for and sometimes edited by women, became
extremely popular.
(b) They discussed issues like women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the
national movement.
(c) Some of them offered household and fashion lessons to women and brought
entertainment through short stories and serialised novels.

10. What efforts were made to spread the benefits of print culture for the poor people in the 19th
century India?
Print culture made a great impact on every section of the society. Following efforts were
made to spread the benefits of print culture among the poor people:
- Very cheap small books were brought to markets in nineteenth-century Madras towns.
- They were sold at crossroads, allowing poor people travelling to markets to buy them.
- Public libraries were set up from the early twentieth century, expanding the 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.

Unit-IX
11. Write a short note on Vernacular Press Act? What were the powers enjoyed by the British
government under the Vernacular Press Act?
- In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modelled on the Irish Press Laws.
- It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the
vernacular press.
- From now on the government kept regular track of the vernacular newspapers published
in different provinces.
- When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned,
- If the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery
confiscated.

12. Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.
- Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in all parts of India.
They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities.
- Attempts to throttle nationalist criticism provoked militant protest. This in turn led to a
renewed cycle of persecution and protests.
- When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Balgangadhar Tilak wrote with
great sympathy about them in his Kesari. This led to his imprisonment in 1908,
provoking in turn widespread protests all over India.

Back Exercise
1. (d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the
press, and freedom of association.
Gandhi ji 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 great from foreign domination, then these
liberties were quite important.

2. (b) Erasmus’s idea of the printed book

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 or irreligious ideas will spread,
ultimately leading to incitement of rebellion.

3. (c) Reformers
 Reformers used newspapers, journals and books to highlight the social evils prevailing in
the society.
-Raja Ram Mohan Roy published the ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ to highlight the condition of
women.
-Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women about how
women were imprisoned at home and treated unjustly by the men folk they served.
-Jyotiba Phule wrote ‘Gulamgiri’ in which he mentioned about the injustice done to the
lower caste people.

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