Class 10 Notes

Class 10 Social Science Notes Chapter 7 (Print culture and the modern world) – India and Contempory World-II Book

Philoid

Philoid

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India and Contempory World-II
Alright class, let's get straight into Chapter 7, 'Print Culture and the Modern World'. This is a crucial chapter because it explains how the simple act of printing transformed societies, economies, and politics across the globe. For your government exam preparation, pay close attention to the key developments, figures, and impacts, especially in the Indian context.

Chapter 7: Print Culture and the Modern World - Detailed Notes

I. The First Printed Books (Pre-Gutenberg)

  1. Origins in East Asia:

    • China: Print technology developed here first. From AD 594, books were printed using woodblock printing (rubbing paper against inked woodblocks).
    • Calligraphy: Skilled handwriting was essential and highly valued.
    • Early Printed Material: Buddhist texts, textbooks for the civil service examinations, trade information, fiction, poetry, etc. Shanghai became a hub of the new print culture.
    • Japan & Korea: Buddhist missionaries introduced hand-printing technology around AD 768-770. The oldest printed Japanese book is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra (AD 868). Korea also had early forms of movable metal type, though it wasn't widely used.

  2. Print Comes to Europe:

    • Marco Polo: Returned to Italy from China in 1295, bringing knowledge of woodblock printing.
    • Manuscripts: Before print, books were handwritten on vellum (animal skin), expensive, fragile, and laborious to produce. Production couldn't meet the growing demand.
    • Scribes: Employed by wealthy patrons or booksellers to copy manuscripts.
    • Woodblock Printing Spreads: By the early 15th century, woodblocks were used in Europe for textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with simple text.

II. Gutenberg and the Printing Press

  1. Johann Gutenberg (Strasbourg, Germany):
    • Developed the first-known mechanical printing press around the 1430s-1440s.
    • Background: Son of a merchant, grew up on an agricultural estate, knowledge of wine and olive presses provided the model; expertise in goldsmithing helped create metal type moulds.
    • Innovation: Combined existing technologies – olive press model for the press, metal casting for movable type (letters), and suitable ink.
    • The Gutenberg Bible: The first major book printed (around 1448-1455), about 180 copies produced. It resembled handwritten manuscripts in layout and appearance (use of borders, illumination spaces left blank for artists).

III. The Print Revolution and Its Impact

  1. A New Reading Public:

    • Printing reduced the cost, time, and labour of book production. Multiple copies could be produced easily.
    • Markets flooded with books, reaching a wider audience.
    • Shift from Hearing to Reading Public: Earlier, knowledge was transferred orally or through collective readings. Print allowed for silent, individual reading.
    • Literacy: Remained low initially, so printers produced illustrated popular ballads and folk tales sung and recited at gatherings (taverns, villages).

  2. Religious Debates and the Fear of Print:

    • Spread of Ideas: Print allowed ideas to circulate widely and quickly, influencing people and encouraging debate.
    • Fear of Rebellion: Not everyone welcomed print. Elites, clergy, and monarchs feared the spread of rebellious or irreligious thoughts.
    • Martin Luther & Protestant Reformation: In 1517, Luther wrote Ninety-Five Theses criticising Catholic practices. Print spread his ideas rapidly, leading to a division within the Church. Luther famously said, "Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one."
    • Catholic Church Response: Imposed controls on publishers and booksellers. Began maintaining an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
    • Menocchio: A 16th-century Italian miller who reinterpreted the Bible based on available printed texts, leading to his execution by the Roman Catholic Church for heresy. His case shows how print allowed individuals to challenge established religious doctrines.

  3. Print and Dissent:

    • Print became a weapon against despotism and challenged established authorities (religious and political).

IV. The Reading Mania (18th Century Europe)

  1. Increased Literacy: Schools and literacy spread, creating a larger reading audience.
  2. New Forms of Literature: Almanacs, ritual calendars, ballads, folktales, chapbooks (pocket-sized books sold by pedlars called chapmen), 'Biliotheque Bleue' (cheap blue-covered books in France).
  3. Periodicals: Newspapers and journals combined current affairs with entertainment.
  4. Ideas of Enlightenment Thinkers: Writings of Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were widely printed and read, promoting reason, science, and challenging tradition/despotism. They argued for rule based on reason rather than custom.
  5. Print Culture and the French Revolution:
    • Arguments:
      • Print spread Enlightenment ideas challenging the legitimacy of the Old Regime.
      • Created a culture of dialogue and debate, fostering critical thinking about existing norms.
      • Circulated cartoons and caricatures mocking the monarchy and aristocracy, fueling discontent (by the 1780s).
    • Counter-argument: People weren't just passively influenced; they interpreted ideas in their own ways. Print also circulated traditional and church propaganda.

V. The Nineteenth Century

  1. Mass Literacy: Compulsory primary education increased child readership. Publishing firms produced school textbooks.
  2. New Readers:
    • Children: Grimm Brothers (Germany) compiled traditional folk tales (1812); specific presses for children's literature emerged.
    • Women: Became important readers and writers. Penny magazines, manuals on behaviour and housekeeping, novels gained popularity. Jane Austen, Bronte sisters, George Eliot became famous novelists.
    • Workers: Lending libraries became common. Self-educated working-class individuals wrote political tracts and autobiographies.
  3. Further Innovations in Print Technology:
    • Richard M. Hoe (New York): Perfected the power-driven cylindrical press (mid-19th C), increasing output.
    • Offset Press: Developed late 19th C, printing up to six colours simultaneously.
    • Electrically Operated Presses: Accelerated printing further from the early 20th C.
    • Other innovations: Methods of feeding paper, improving plate quality, automatic paper reels, photoelectric controls.
  4. New Marketing Strategies: Serialised novels in magazines, cheap paperback editions (Shilling Series in England), influence of the Great Depression (cheap paperbacks).

VI. India and the World of Print

  1. Manuscripts Before Print:

    • India had a rich tradition of handwritten manuscripts (Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, vernacular languages).
    • Copied on palm leaves or handmade paper, often beautifully illustrated.
    • Limitations: Expensive, fragile, difficult to handle, read, and carry. Primarily accessible to the wealthy elite. Students often just memorised texts.

  2. Print Comes to India:

    • Mid-16th Century: Printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries.
    • Jesuit priests printed several tracts in Konkani and Kanara languages.
    • 1579: Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in Cochin.
    • 1713: First Malayalam book printed by them.
    • English Language Press: Developed later (late 18th C). James Augustus Hicky began publishing the Bengal Gazette in 1780, a weekly commercial paper open to gossip and criticism of the government. Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hicky.

  3. Religious Reform and Public Debates:

    • From the early 19th C, intense debates around religious issues emerged (widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood, idolatry).
    • Print facilitated public debate and shaping of public opinion. Newspapers circulated different viewpoints.
    • Rammohun Roy: Published Sambad Kaumudi (1821) promoting reformist ideas. Hindu orthodoxy commissioned Samachar Chandrika to oppose him.
    • Persian & Urdu: Jam-i-Jahan Nama (1822), Shamsul Akhbar (1822). Gujarati newspaper: Bombay Samachar.
    • Ulama (Islamic Scholars): Feared colonial influence might change Muslim personal laws. Used cheap lithographic presses to publish Persian/Urdu translations of scriptures and fatwas (legal opinions). Deoband Seminary (founded 1867) published thousands of fatwas.

  4. New Forms of Publication:

    • Novels, lyrics, short stories, essays, social and political tracts emerged.
    • Visual Culture: Cheap prints and calendars easily available, shaping popular ideas about modernity, tradition, religion, politics. Caricatures and cartoons appeared in journals.

  5. Women and Print:

    • Liberal husbands/fathers educated women at home or sent them to schools.
    • Many journals advocated women's education.
    • Conservative Hindus and Muslims feared educated women would be corrupted.
    • Rashsundari Debi: A young married woman in East Bengal, secretly learned to read and wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban (published 1876) - the first full-length autobiography published in Bengali.
    • Kailashbashini Debi: Wrote books highlighting women's experiences (imprisonment at home, ignorance, hard domestic labour).
    • Tarabai Shinde & Pandita Ramabai (Maharashtra): Wrote passionately about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.
    • Hindi Print: Encouraged women's reading through articles on education, conduct, etc. Istri Dharm Vichar taught women obedience.
    • Punjab: Folk literature (Ram Chaddha's Istri Dharm Vichar), Battala publications (cheap books in Calcutta).
    • Muslim Women: Begums of Bhopal promoted education; some Urdu novelists encouraged women's reading.

  6. Print and the Poor:

    • Very cheap small books brought to markets in 19th C Madras towns, sold at crossroads. Public libraries set up from the early 20th C.
    • Jyotiba Phule (Maharashtra): Wrote Gulamgiri (1871) about the injustices of the caste system.
    • B.R. Ambedkar (Maharashtra) & E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Madras): Wrote powerfully on caste.
    • Kashibaba (Kanpur millworker): Wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938) linking caste and class exploitation.
    • Bangalore Cotton Millworkers: Set up libraries to educate themselves.

  7. Print and Censorship:

    • Before 1798, the colonial state wasn't overly concerned with censorship. Early measures were directed against Englishmen in India critical of Company rule.
    • Calcutta Supreme Court (1820s): Passed regulations to control press freedom.
    • Revolt of 1857: Changed the attitude. Enraged Englishmen demanded repression of the 'native' press.
    • Vernacular Press Act (1878): Modelled on Irish Press Laws. Gave the government extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. Allowed confiscation of printing machinery if warnings were ignored.
    • Nationalist Response: Despite repression, nationalist newspapers grew, reporting on colonial misrule and encouraging nationalist activities (e.g., Bal Gangadhar Tilak's Kesari - Marathi). This led to Tilak's imprisonment in 1908, sparking widespread protests.

Conclusion:

Print technology fundamentally altered how people received and shared information. It fueled revolutions (religious, scientific, political), enabled the spread of education and literacy, gave voice to marginalized communities (women, poor, lower castes), and played a critical role in the rise of nationalism, particularly in India, while also attracting censorship from threatened authorities.

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) for Practice:

  1. Where did the earliest kind of print technology, using woodblock printing, first develop?
    (a) Japan
    (b) Korea
    (c) China
    (d) Germany

  2. Who brought the knowledge of woodblock printing from China to Italy in the late 13th century?
    (a) Johann Gutenberg
    (b) Marco Polo
    (c) Martin Luther
    (d) Vasco da Gama

  3. Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known mechanical printing press in which European city?
    (a) Rome
    (b) Paris
    (c) London
    (d) Strasbourg

  4. Martin Luther's writings, particularly the 'Ninety-Five Theses', led directly to which major European event?
    (a) The French Revolution
    (b) The Glorious Revolution
    (c) The Protestant Reformation
    (d) The Enlightenment

  5. What was the 'Index of Prohibited Books' (from 1558)?
    (a) A list of books recommended by Martin Luther
    (b) A catalogue of books available in lending libraries
    (c) A list maintained by the Roman Catholic Church to control reading material
    (d) A bibliography of Enlightenment thinkers

  6. In India, the first printing press was brought by which group?
    (a) British East India Company
    (b) French Missionaries
    (c) Portuguese Missionaries
    (d) Dutch Traders

  7. Who started publishing the 'Bengal Gazette', considered the first Indian newspaper, in 1780?
    (a) Rammohun Roy
    (b) Bal Gangadhar Tilak
    (c) James Augustus Hicky
    (d) Warren Hastings

  8. Which social reformer published 'Sambad Kaumudi' in 1821 to promote ideas against practices like Sati?
    (a) Jyotiba Phule
    (b) Rammohun Roy
    (c) B.R. Ambedkar
    (d) Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar

  9. 'Amar Jiban', published in 1876, is significant as the first full-length autobiography in Bengali, written by:
    (a) Kailashbashini Debi
    (b) Pandita Ramabai
    (c) Rashsundari Debi
    (d) Tarabai Shinde

  10. What was the primary objective of the Vernacular Press Act of 1878, enacted by the British colonial government in India?
    (a) To promote printing in Indian languages
    (b) To reduce the cost of vernacular newspapers
    (c) To provide financial aid to vernacular presses
    (d) To censor and control newspapers published in Indian languages

Answer Key for MCQs:

  1. (c) China
  2. (b) Marco Polo
  3. (d) Strasbourg
  4. (c) The Protestant Reformation
  5. (c) A list maintained by the Roman Catholic Church to control reading material
  6. (c) Portuguese Missionaries
  7. (c) James Augustus Hicky
  8. (b) Rammohun Roy
  9. (c) Rashsundari Debi
  10. (d) To censor and control newspapers published in Indian languages

Make sure you revise these points thoroughly. Understand the cause-and-effect relationships – how print led to debates, how debates led to reforms or revolutions, and how authorities reacted with censorship. Good luck with your preparation!

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