⁷

Earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korca. This was a system of hand printing From AD 594
onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper also invented there-against the inked surface of woodblocks. As
both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book was folded and stitched
at the side. Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy.The imperial
state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed material. China possessed a huge bureaucratic
system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in
vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination
candidates went up and that increased the volume of print.By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China,
the uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar- officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life,
as they collected trade information. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional
narratives, poetry, autobiographics, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays. 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.This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology. Western printing techniques and
mechanical presses were imported in the late nineteenth century as Western powers established their outposts in China.
Shangluai became the hub of the new print culture, catering to the Western-style schools. From hand printing there was
now a gradual shift to mechanical printing.

Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan ansand an The oldest Japanese book,
printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Satru, containing sis sheets of text and woodcut illustrations. Pictures were
printed on textiles playing cards and paper money. In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers were regularly published,
and books were cheap and abundant. Printing of visual material led to interesting publishing practices. InThe late
eighteenth century, in the flourishing urban circles at Edo (later to be known as “Tokyo), illustrated collections of
paintingsDepicted an elegant urban culture, involving artists, courtesans, and Teahouse gatherings. Libraries and
bookstores were packed with Hand-printed material of various types-books on women, musical Instruments, calculations,
tea ceremony, flower arrangements, Etiquette, cooking and famous places.

For centunes, silk and spices from China flowed into Europe through the silk route. In the eleventh century, Chinese paper
reached Europe vin the same route. Paper made possible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes. Then,
in 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer, retumed to Italy after many years of exploration in China. As you read above, China
already had the technology of woodblock printing, Marco Polo brought this knowledge hack with him. Now Italians began
producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe. Luxury editions were still
handwritten on very expensive vellum, meant for anstocratic circles and rich monastic libraries which scoffed at printed
books as cheap vulgarities. Merdsants and students in the university towns bought the cheaper printed copies. Vellum – A
parchment made from the skin of animals As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe began exporting
books to many different countries. Book fairs were held at different places. Production of handwritten manuscripts was
also organised in new ways to meet the expanded demand. Scribes or skilled handwriters were no longer solely employed
by wealthy or influential patrons but increasingly by booksellers as well. More than 51) scribes often worked for one
bookseller.

But the production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books. Copying was an
expensive, laborious and time-consuming business. Mamescripts 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. By the carly fifteenth century, woodblocks being widely used in Europe
to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with simple, brief testsThere was clearly a great need for even quicker
and cheaper reproduction of texts. This could only be with the invention of a new print technology. The breakthrough
occurred at Strasbourg, Germany, where Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known printing press in the 1430s.

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. Subsequently, be learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the
expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets. 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. 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.The new technology did not entirely displace the existing art of producing books by hand.In fact,
printed books at first closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance and layout. The metal letters imitated the
ornamental handwritten styles. Borders were illuminated by hand with folage and other patterns, and illustrations were
painted. 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 illustrationsIn the hundred years between 1450 and
1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe. Printers from Germany travelled to other countries,
seeking work and helping start new presses. As the number of printing presses grew, book production boomed. The second
half of the fifteenth century saw 20 milion copies of printed books flooding the markets in Europe. The number went up in
the sixteenth century to about 200 million copies.This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print
revolution.

With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books. The time and labour required to
produce cach book came down, and multiple copies could be produced. With greater ease. Books flooded the market,
reaching out ever-growing readershipAccess to books created a new culture of reading. Farber, 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 ornally. People collectively heard a story, or saw a performance. As you will see in
Chapter 8, they did not read a book individually and silently. Before the age of print, books were not only expensive but
they could not be produced. In sufficient numbers. Now books could reach out to wider sections of people. If carlier there
was a hearing public, now a reading public came into beingBut the transition was not so simple. Boules could be read only
by the iterate, and the rates of literacy in most European countries were very low till the twentieth century. How, then,
could publishers persuade the common people to welcome the printed book? To do this, they had to keep in mind the
wider reach of the printed work: even those who did not read could certainly enjoy listening to books being read out. So
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 Oral culture thus entered print
and printed material was orally transmitted. The line that separated the oral and reading cultures became blurred. And the
hearing public and reading public became intermingled.

Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and discussion. Even those
who disagreed with. Established authorities could now print and circulate their ideas. Through the printed message, they
could persuade people to think differently, and move them to action. This had significance in different spheres of lifeNot
everyone welcomed the printed book, and those who did also had fears about it. Many were apprehensive of the effects
that the easier access to the printed word and the wider circulation of books, could have on people’s minds. 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. 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
began to cuculateLet us consider the implication of this in one sphere of life in early modern Europe namely, religion.

In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the
Roman Catholic Church. A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg, It challenged the Church to
debate his ideas. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This lead to a division
within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s translanon of the New Testament sold
5,000 copies within a few weeks and a second edition appeared within three months. Deeply grateful to print, Luther said,
Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.” Several scholars, in fact, think that print brought about a new
intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the Reformation.

Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of faith even among little-
educated working people. In the sixteenth century, Menocchio, a miller in Italy, began to read booles that were available in
his locality. He reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman
Catholic Church. When the Roman Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Menocchio was hauled up twice
and ultimately executed. 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,
New wordsInquisition-A former Roman Catholic cour for identifying and punishing heretics Heretical Behefs which do not
follow the accepted teachings of the Church. In medieval times, heresy was seen as a threat to the right of the Church to
decide on what should be believed and what should not. Heretical beliefs were severely punished Satiety The state of
being fulfilled much beyond the point of satisfaction Seditious-Action, speech or writing that is seen as oppoing the
government

Erasmus, a Latin scholar and a Catholic reformer, who criticised the excesses of Catholicism but kept his distance from
Luther, expressed a deep anxiety about printing. He wrote in Adages (1508):To what corner of the world do they not fly,
these swarms of new books? It may be that one here and there contributes something worth knowing, but the very
multitude of them is hurtful to scholarship, because it creates a glut, and even in good things satiety is most harmful...
[printers] fill the world with books, not just trifling things (such as write, perhaps), but stupid, ignorant, slanderous,
scandalous, raving, irreligious and seditious books, and the number of them is such that even the valuable publications lose
their value

New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences. Booksellers employed pedlars 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. In England, penny
chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars known as chapmen, and sold for a penny, so that even the poor could buy them.
In France, were the ‘Biliotheque Bleue’, which were low-priced small books printed on poor quality paper, and bound in
cheap blue covers. 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 interestsThe peniodical
press developed from the early eighteenth century, Box 2 combining information about current affairs with entertainment.
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. When
scientists like Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could influence a much wider circle of scientifically
minded readers. 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 mto popular literature.

Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!”By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that hooks 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. 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. In many of Mercier’s novel, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading. They
devour books, are lost in the world books create, and become enlightened in the process. 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!”

First: print popularised 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. They attacked the sacred authority of the Church
and the despotic power of the state, thus croding 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.Sccond: 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 recognised
the need to question existing ideas and beliefs. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into
beingThird by the 1780s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their morality. In the
process, it raised questions about the existing social order. Cartoons and caricatures typically suggested that the monarchy
remained absorbed only in sensual pleasures while the common people suffered immense hardships. This literature
circulated underground and led to the growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy

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. The
Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants. What they collected was
edited before the stories were published in a collection in 1812. Anything that was considered unsuitable for children or
would appear vulgar to the elites, was not included in the published version. Rural folk tales thus acquired a new form. In
this way, print recorded old tales but also changed them.Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny.
Magazines (see Fig 12) were especially meant for women, as 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. Their writings became important in defining a
new type of woman a person with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.Lending libraries had
been in existence from the seventeenth century onwards. 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
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 till well after the introduction of print, down to the late nineteenth century. Manuscripts,
however, were highly expensive and fragile. They had to be handled carefully, and they could not be read easily as
thescnpt was written in different styles. So manuscripts were not widely used in everyday life. Even though pre-colonial
Bengal had developed an extensive network of village primary schools, students very often did not read texts. They only
learnt to write. Teachers dictated portions of texts from memory and students wrote them down. Many thus became
literate without ever actually reading any kinds of texts.Handwritten manuscripts continued to be produced in India till
much after the coming of print. This manuscript was produced in the eighteenth century in the Malayalam script.

The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-sixteenth century: Jesuit priests learnt
Konkani and printed several tracts. By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and in Kanara languages.
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.The English
language pross did not grow in India till quite late even though the Einglish East India Company began to import presses
from the late seventeenth century.From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Crazette, a weekly
magazine that described itself as ‘a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’. So it was private English
enterprise, proud of its independence from colonial influence, that hegan English printing in India. I 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. Enraged by this, Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Ilickey, and
encouraged the publication of officially sanctioned newspapers that could counter the flow of information that damaged
the image of the colonial government. By the close of the eighteenth century, a number of newspapers and journals
appeared in print. There were Indians, too, whobegan to publish Indian newspapers. The first to appear was the weekly
Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.

From the early nineteenth century, as you know, there were intense debates around religious issues. 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. Some criticised 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.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. 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. Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy
commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions. From 1822, two Persian newspapers were published, Jam-i-
Jahan Nama and Shamal. Akhbar. In the same year, a Crujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, made its appearance.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. 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. 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. Among Hindus, too,
print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in the vernacular languages. The first printed edition of the
Ramcharitmanar of Tulsidas, a sixteenth-century text, came out from Calcutta in 1810. By the mid-nineteenth century,
cheap lithographic editions flooded north Indian markets. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri
Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernaculars. 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.Religious texts, therefore, reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging discussions, debates and controversies
within and among different religions.Print did not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst
communities, but it also connected communities and people in different parts of India. Newspapers conveyed news from
one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.

Printing created an appetine for new kinds of writing, As more and more people could now read, they wanted to see their
own lives, experiences, emotions and relationships reflected in what they read The novel, a literary firm which had
developeil in Europe, idcally catered to this need. Ir soon acspaireal distinctively Indian forms and styles. For readers, it
opened up riew worlds of experience, and gave a vivid sense of the diversity of human lives.Other new literary forms also
cotered the wold of reading- lyrics, short stoties, essays about social and political mattees. In different ways, they
reinforced the new emphasis on human lives and intimate feelingy, about the political and social nalet that shaped such
things.

By the end of the nineteenth century, a new vistal culture was taking shape. With the setting up of an increasing number of
printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies. Pimen Hike Raja Ravi Varma produced images
for mass circulation. Voor wood engravers who made woodblocks set up shop near the letterpresses, and were employed
by print shops. Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be hought even by the poor to decorate the
walls of their hornes or places of work. These prints began shapung popolar ideas about modemey and readition, religion
and polmes, and society and culture.By the 1870s, caricatuns and cartoons were being published in journals and
newspapers, commenting on social and political issues. Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Iridians fascination with
Western tastes and clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change. There were imperial caricatures lampooning
nationalists, as well as nataonalist cartoons criticiting imperial rulk .

Laves and feelings of women began to be witten in particularly vivad and intense ways. Women’s reading, therefore,
increased enormourly in middle-class homes. Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at borne, and
sent them to schools when women’s schunds were set up in the cities and torwns after the mid-nineteenth century. Many
journals began carrying writings by women, and explained why women should be educated. They also carned a syllabus
and attached suitable reading matter which could be utod tve home-based schoolingBut not all families were liberal
Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be
corrupted by reading Urdu comances. Sometimes, rebel women defied such prohibition. We know the story of a girl in a
conservative Muslim family of north India who secretly leant to read and write in Urdu. Her family wanted her to read only
the Arabic Quran which she did not understand So she wisisted on learning to read a language that her own. In East Bengal,
in the carly nineteenth century, Rashsundari Debs, a young married girl in a very uthodos household, learnt to read in the
secrecy of her kitchen. Later, she wrote her autobiography Amar Jilyar which was published in 1876. It was the first full-
length autobiography poblished in the Bengali languageSince 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. From
the 1960s, a few Bengali women like Kailashbashini Dehi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women-about how
women were imprisoned at home, kept in upomnce, forced to do hard domestic labour and treated unjustly by the very
people they served. 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, expecially widows. A woman s Tamil nuvel expressed what
reading meant to women who so greatly confined by social regulations: For vanous reasons, my world is small... More than
half my life’s happiness has come from books...

While Urdu, Tamal, Beragali and Marathi print culture had developed rady, Hindi printing began seriously only from the
1970s. Soon, a harge segment of it was devoted to the education of women. In the early twentieth century, journals,
written for and sometimes edited by women, became extremely popular. They discussed issues like women's education,
widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement. Some of them offered household. and fashion lessons to
women and brought entertainment through short stories and serialised novelsIn Punjala, too, a similar folk literature was
widely printed from the early twentieth century. Ram Chaddha published the fast-selling Istri Dharm Vichar to teach
women how to be obedient wives. The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar message. Many of
these were in the form of dialogues about the qualities of a good woman.In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta -the
Battala-wasdevoted to the printing of popular books. Here you could buy cheap editions of religious tracts and scriptures,
as well as literature that was considered obscene and scandalous. By the late nineteenth century, lot of these books were
being profusely illustrated with woodcuts and coloured lithographs. Pedlars took the Battala publications to homes,
enabling women to read them in their leisure time.

Very cheap small books were brought to markets in nineteenth-century Madras towns and sold at crossroads, allowing
poor people travelling to markets to buy them. Public libraries were set up from the carly 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.From the late nineteenth century, issues of caste
discrimination began to be written about in many printed tracts and essays Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low
caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste systern in his Gulamgiri (1871). In the twentieth century,
BR Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, better known as Perivar, wrote powerfully on caste
and their writings were read by people all over India. Local protest movements and sects also created a lot of popular
journals and tracts criticising ancient scriptures and envisioning a new and just future.Workers in factories were too
overworked and lacked the education to write much about their experiences. But Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote
and published Chlate Aur Bade Ka Sawa/in 1938 to show the liriks between caste and class exploitation. The poems of
another Kanpur mallworker, who wrote under the name of Sudarshan Chakr between 1935 and 1955, were brought
together and published in a collection called Sacchi Kavitaryan. By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton mallworkers set up libraries
to educate themselves, following the example of Bombay workers. These were sponsored by social reformers who tried to
restrict excessive drinking among them, to bring literacy and, sometimes, to propagate the message of nationalism.

Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was not too concerned with censorship. Strangely, its carly
measures to control printed matter were directed against Englishmen in India who were critical of Company misrule and
hated the actions of particular Company officers. The Company was worried that such criticisms might be used by its critics
in England to attack its trade monopoly in India.By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to
control press freedom and the Company began encouraging publication of newspapers that would celebrate Britsh rule. In
1835, faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and vemacular newspapers, Governor-General Bentinck agreed to
revise press laws. Thomas Macaulay, a liberal colonial official, formulated new rules that restored the earlier freedomsAfter
the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed. Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the
'native' press. As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, the colonial government began debating measures
of stringent control. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the
government with extensive nghts to censor reports and editorials in the vemacular 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, and if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery
confiscated.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 wen 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.

India is an agriculturally important country. Two-thirds of its population is engaged in agricultural activities. Agriculture is a
primary activity, which produces most of the food that we consume. Besides food grains, it also produces raw material for
various industries.Can you name some industries based on agricultural raw material?Moreover, some agricultural products
like tea, coffee, spices, etc. Are also exported.TYPES OF FARMINGAgriculture is an age-old economic activity in our country.
Over these years, cultivation methods have changed significantly depending upon the characteristics of physical
environment, technological know-how and socio-cultural practices. Farming varies from subsistence to commercial type. At
present, in different parts of India, the following farming systems are practised. Primitive Subsistence Farming To the crops
grown.E This type of farming is still practised in few pockets of India. Primitive subsistence agriculture is practised on small
patches of land with the help of primitive tools like hoe, dao and digging sticks, and family/community labour. This type of
farming depends upon monsoon, natural fertility of the soil and suitability of other environmental conditionsIt is a ‘slash
and burn’ agriculture. Farmers clear a patch of land and produce cereals and other food crops to sustain their family. When
the soil fertility decreases, the farmers shift and clear a fresh patch of land for cultivation. This type of shifting allows
Nature to replenish the fertility of the soil through natural processes; land productivity in this type of agriculture is low as
the farmer does not use fertilisers or other modern inputs. It is known by different names in different parts of the
country.It is jhumming in north-eastern states like Assam. Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland: Pamlou in Manipur, Dipa in
Bastar district of Chhattishgarh, and in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.Jhumming: The 'slash and bum' agriculture is known
as 'Milpa' in Mexico and Central America, 'Conuco' in Venzuela, 'Roca' in Brazil, 'Masole in Central Africa, 'Ladang' in
Indonesia, 'Ray' in Vietnam.In India, this primitive form of cultivation is called 'Bewar' or 'Dahiya' in Madhya Pradesh, Podu'
or 'Penda' in Andhra Pradesh, 'Pama Dabi' or 'Koman' ar Bringa' in Odisha, 'Kumari' in Western Ghats, 'Valre' or 'Waltre in
South-eastern Rajasthan, 'Khil' in the Himalayan belt, 'Kuruwa' in Jharkhand, and 'Jhumming' in the North-eastern region

Intensive Subsistence FarmingThis type of farming is practised in areas of high population pressure on land. It is labour-
intensive farming, where high doses of biochemical inputs and irrigation are used for obtaining higher production.Though
the right of inheritance leading to the division of land among successive generations has rendered land holding size
uneconomical, the farmers continue to take maximum output from the limited land in the absence of alternative source of
livelihood. Thus, there is enormous pressure on agricultural land.Commercial FarmingThe main characteristic of this type of
farming is the use of higher doses of modern inputs, e.g. high yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical. fertilisers, insecticides
and pesticides in order to obtain higher productivity. The degree of commercialisation of agriculture varies from one region
to another. For example, rice is commercial crop in Haryana and Punjab, but in Odisha, it is a subsistence crop.. Plantation
is also a type of commercial farming. In this type of farming, a single crop is grown on a large area. The plantation has an
interface of agriculture and industry. Plantations cover large tracts of land, using capital intensive impuls, with the help of
migrant labourers. All the produce is used as raw material in respective industries. In India, tea, coffee, rubber,
sugarcane,banana, etc., are important plantation crops. Tea in Assam and North Bengal coffee in Karnataka some of the
important plantation crops grown in these states. Since the production is mainly for market, a well- developed network of
transport and communication connecting the plantation areas, processing industries and markets plays an important role
in the development of plantations.
India has three cropping seasons rabi, kharif and zaid.Rabi crops are sown in winter from October to December and
harvested in summer from April to June. Some of the important rabi crops are wheat, barley, peas, gram and. Mustard.
Though, these crops are grown in large parts of India, states from the north and north-western parts such as Punjab,
Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh are important for the production of
wheat and other rabi crops. Availability of precipitation during winter months due to the western temperate cyclones helps
in the success of these crops. However, the success of the green revolution in Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and
parts of Rajasthan has also been an important factor in the growth of the above mentioned rabi crops.Kharif crops are
grown with the onset of monsoon in different parts of the country and these are harvested in September-October
Important crops grown during this seasoni are paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur (arhar), moong, urad, cotton, jute, groundnut
and soyabean. Some of the most important rice- growing regions are Assam, West Bengal, coastal regions of Odisha,
Andhra Pradesh. Telangana. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Maharashtra, particularly the [Konkan coast) along with Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar. Recently. Paddy has also become an important erop of Punjab and Haryana. In states like Assam,West Bengal
and Odisha, three crops of paddy are grown in a year. These are Aus, AmanAnd Boro,In between the rabi and the kharif
seasons. There is a short season during the summer months known the Zaid season. Some of the crops produced during
‘zaid’ are CONTAFORM hoa-11Watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder crops. Sugarcane takes almost a
year to grow.Major Crops

A variety of food and non food crops are grown in different parts of the country depending upon the variations in soil,
climate and cultivation practices. Major crops growI in India are rice, wheat, millets, pulses, tea, coffee, sugarcane, oil
seeds, cotton and jute, etc.Rice: It is the staple food crop of a majority of the people in India. Our country is the second
largest producer of rice in the world after China. It is a kharif crop which requires high temperature, (above 25°C) and high
humidity with annual rainfall above 100 cm. In the areas of less rainfall, it grows with the help of trrigation.

Rice is grown in the plains of north and north-eastern India, coastal areas and the deltaic regions. Development of dense
network of canal irrigation and tubewells have made it possible to grow rice in areas of less rainfall such as Punjab,
Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh and parts of RajasthanWheat: This is the second most important cereal crop. It is the
main food crop. In north and north-western part of the country. This rabi crop requires a cool growing season and a bright
sunshine at the time of ripening. It requires 50 to 75 em of annual rainfall evenly distributed over the growing season.
There are two important whent-growing zones in the country the Ganga-Satluj plains in the north-west and black soli
region of the Deccan The major wheat-producing states are Punjab. Haryana. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and
Rajasthan. Bajra grows well on sandy soils and shallow black soil. Major Bajra producing States are Rajasthan. Uttar
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana. Ragi is a crop of dry regions and grows well on red, black, sandy, loamy and
shallow black soils. Major ragi producing states are: Karnataka. Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim,
Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh.Maize: It is a crop which is used both as food and fodder. It is a kharif crop which
requires temperature between 21°C to 27°C and grows well in old alluvial soil. In some states like Bihar maize is grown in
rabi season also. Use of modern inputs such as HYV seeds, fertilisers and irrigation have contributed to the Increasing
production of matze. Major maize producing states are Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh. Bihar, Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana. Millets: Jowar, bajra and ragi are the important millets grown in India. Though. these are known as coarse
grains, they have very high nutritional value. For example, ragi is very rich in tron, calcium, other micro nutrients and
roughage. Jowar is the third most important food crop with respect to area and production. It is a rain-fed crop mostly
grown in the moist areas which hardly needs Pirrigation. Major Jowar producing States are Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Andhra Pradesh and Madhya PradeshPulses: India is the largest producer as well as the consumer of pulses in the world.
These are the major source of protein in a vegetarian diet. Major pulses that are grown in India are tur (arhar), urad,
moong, masur, peas and gram. Can you distinguish which of these pulses are grown in the kharif season and which are
grown in the rabt season? Pulses need less moisture and survive even in dry conditions. Being leguminous crops, all these
crops except arhar help in restoring soil. fertility by fixing nitrogen from the air. Therefore, these are mostly grown in
rotation with other crops. Major pulse producing states in India are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Uttar
Pradesh and Karnataka.

Food Crops other than GrainsSugarcane: It is a tropical as well as a subtropical crop. It grows well in hot and humid climate
with a temperature of 21°C to 27°C and an annual rainfall between 75cm. and 100cm. Irrigation is required in the regions
of low rainfall. It can be grown on a variety of soils and needs manual labour fromsowing to harvesting. India is the second
largest producer of sugarcane only after Brazil. It is the main source of sugar, gur (Jaggary), khandsari and molasses. The
major sugarcane-producing states are Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,
Bihar, Punjab and Haryana Oil Seeds: In 2018 India was the second largest producer of groundnut in the world after China.
In rapeseed production India was third largest producer in the world after Canada and China in 2018, Different oil seeds are
grown covering approximately 12 per cent of the total cropped area of the country. Main oil-seeds produced in India are
groundnut, mustard, coconut, sesamum (til), soyabean, castor seeds, cotton seeds, linseed and sunflower. Most of these
are edible and used as cooking mediums. However, some of these are also used as raw material in the production of soap,
cosmetics and ointments. Groundnut is a kharif crop and accounts for about half of the major oilseeds produced in the
country, Gujarat was the largest producer groundnut followed owed by by I Rajasthan and Tamil of Nadu in 2019-20.
Linseed and mustard are rabi crops. Sesamum is a khartf crop in north and rabi crop in south India, Castor seed is growi
both as rabi and kharif crop.

Tea: Tea cultivation is an example of plantation agriculture. It is also an important beverage crop introduced in India
initially by the British. Today, most of the tea plantations are owned by Indians. The tea plant grows grows well in tropical
and sub-tropical climates endowed with deep and fertile well-drained soil, rich in humus and organic matter. Tea bashes
require warm and moist frost-freeclimate all through the year. Frequent showers. evenly distributed over the year ensure
continuous growth of tender leaves. Tea is a labour-intensive industry. It requires. abundani ani, cheap and skilled labour.
Tea is processed the tea garden within to restore its freshness. Major tea producing states are Assam, hills of Darjeeling
and Jalpaiguri districts, West Bengal. Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Apart from these. Himachal Pradesh. Uttarakhand.
Meghalaya, Andhra Pradesh and Tripura are also tea producing states in the country. In 2018 India was the second largest
producer of tea after China. Coffee: Indian coffee is known in the world for its good quality. The Arabica variety initially
brought from Yemen is produced in the country. This variety is in great demand all over the world. Initially its cultivation
was Introduced on the Baba Budan Hills and even oday its cultivation is confined to the Nilgiri inKarnataka, Kerala and
Tamil Nadu. Horticulture Crops: In 2018, India was the second largest producer of fruits andvegetables in the world after
China. India is a producer of tropical as well as temperate fruits. Mangoes of Maharashtra. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana.
Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. oranges of Nagpur and Cherrapunjee (Meghalaya), bananas of Kerala, Mizoram.
Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, lichi and guava of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, pineapples of Meghalaya, grapes of Andhra
Pradesh. Telangana and Maharashtra, apples, pears, apricots and walnuts of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh
are in great demand the world over . India is an important producer of pea. cauliflower, onion, cabbage, tomato, brinjal
and potato.

Non-Food CropsRubber: li is an equatorial crop, but under special conditions, it is also grown in tropical and sub-tmpica
topical areas. It requires requires moist and humid climate with rainfall of more than 200 em. and temperature above
25°C.Rubber is an important industrial raw material. It is mainly grown in Kerala. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andaman and
Nicobar islands and Garo hills of Meghalaya.Fibre Crops: Cotton, jute, hemp and natural silk are the four major fibre crops
grown in India. The first three are derived from the crops grown in the soil, the latter is obtained from cocoons of the
silkworms fed on green leaves specially mulberry. Rearing of silk worms for the production of silk fibre is known as
sericulture.Cotton: India is believed to be the original home of the cotton plant. Cotton is one of the main raw materials for
cotton textile industry. In 2017, India was second largest producer of cotton after China. Cotton grows well in drier parts of
the black cotton soil of the Deccan plateau. It requires high temperature, light rainfall or irrigation, 210 frost-free days and
bright sun shine for its growth. It is a kharif crop and requires to 8 months to mature 6 Major cotton-producing states are-
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh.Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh.Jute: It is known as the golden fibre. Jhite grows well on well-drained fertile soils in the flood plains where soils are
renewed every year. High temperature is required during the time ofgrowth. West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Odisha and
Meghalaya are the major jute producing states, It is used in making gunny bags, mats, ropes, yarn, carpets and other
artefacts. Due to its high cost, ilis losing market to synthetic fibres and packing materials, particularly the nylon.

Technological and Institutional Reforms.

It was mentioned in the previous pages that agriculture has been practised in India for thousands of years. Sustained uses
of land without compatible techno-institutional changes have hindered the pace of agricultural development. Inspite of
development of sources of irrigation most of the farmers in large parts of the country still depend upon monsoon and
natural fertility in order to carry on their agriculture. For growing population, this poses a serious challenge. Agriculture
which provides livelihood for more than 60 per cent. Of its population, needs some serious technical and institutional
reforms. Thus, collectivisation, consolidation of holdings, cooperation and abolition of zamindari, etc. Were given priority
to bring about institutional reforms in the country after Independence. Land reform’ was the main focus of our First Five
Year Plan. The right of inheritance had already lead to fragmentation of land holdings necessitating

Consolidation of holdings.
The laws of land reforms were enacted but the implementation was lacking or lukewarm. The Government of India
embarked upon introducing agricultural reforms to improve Indian agriculture in the 1960s and 1970s. The Green
Revolution based on the use of package technology and the White Revolution [Operation Flood) were some of the
strategies initiated to improve the lot of Indian agriculture. But, this too led to the concentration of development in few
selected areas. Therefore, In the 1980s and 1990s, a comprehensive land development programme was initiated, which
included both institutional and technical reforms. Provision for crop insurance against drought, flood, cyclone, fire and
disease, establishment of Grameen banks, cooperative societies and banks for providing loan facilities to the farmers at
lower rates of interest were some important steps in this direction. Kissan Credit Card (KCC), Personal Accident Insurance
Scheme (PAIS) are some other schemes introduced by the Government of India for the benefit of the farmers. Moreover,
spectal weather bulletins and agricultural programmes for farmers ere introduced on the radio and television. The
government also announces minimum support price, remunerative and procurement prices for important crops to check
the exploitation of farmers by speculators and middlemen.

The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modem trade and cultural links between distant parts of the world. The
name 'silk routes points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes along this route. Historians have identified
several silk routes, over land and by sea, knitting together vast regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and northern
Africa. They are known to have existed since before the Christian Eira and thrived almost till the fifteenth century. But
Chinese pottery also travelled the same route, as did textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia. In return, precious
metals-gold and silver-flowed from Europe to Asia.Trade and cultural exchange always went hand in hand. Farly Christian
missionaries almost certainly travelled this route to Asia, as did early Muslim preachers a few centuries later. Much before
all this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through intersecting points on the silk
routes,

Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange. Traders and travellers introduced new crops to the lands
they travelled. Even ‘ready’ foodstuff in distant parts of the world might share common origins. Take spaghetti and
noodles. It is believed that noodles travelled west from China to become spaghetti. Or, perhaps Arab traders took pasta to
fifth-century Sicily, an island now in Italy. Similar foods were also known in India and Japan, so the truth about their origins
may never be known. Yet such guesswork suggests the possibilities of long-distance cultural contact even in the pre-
modern world.Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes,
and so on were not known to our ancestors until about five centuries ago These foods were only introduced in Europe and
Asia after Christopher Columbus accidentally discovered the vast continent that would later become known as the
Americas (Here we will use 'America' to describe North America, South America and the Caribbean.) In fact, many of our
common foods came from America's original inhabitants-the American Indians.

Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life.and death. Europe's poor began to eat better and live
longer with the introduction of the humble potato. Ireland's poorest peasants became so dependent on potatoes that
when disease destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died of starvabon.

1.3 Conquest, Disease and TradeThe pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century after European sailors found
a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the western ocean to America. For centuries before, the Indian Ocean had
known a bustling trade, with goods, people, knowledge, customs, etc. criss-crossing its waters. The Indian subcontinent
was central to these flows and a crucial point in their networks. The entry of the Europeans helped expand or redirect
some of these flows towards Europe Before its 'discovery", America had been cut off from regular contact with the rest of
the world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth century, its vast lands and abundant crops and minerals began to
transform trade and lives everywhere.Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in present day Peru and
Mexico also enhanced Europe's wealth and financed its trade with Asia. Legends spread in seventeenth-century Europe
about South America's fabled wealth. Many expeditions set off in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.The
Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America was decisively under way by the mid-sixteenth century.
European conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. In fact, the most powerful weapon of the Spanish
conquerors was riot a conventional military weapon at all. It was the germs such as those of smallpox that they carried on
their person. Because of their long isolation, America's original inhabitants had no immunity against these diseases that
came from Furope. Smallpox in particular proved a deadly killer. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent, ahead
even of any Furopeans reaching there. It killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for conquest.Guns could
be bought or captured and turned against the invaders. But not diseases such as smallpox to which the conquerors were
mostly immuneUntil the nineteenth century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe. Cities were crowded and deadly
diseases were widespread. Religious conflicts were common, and religious dissenters were persecuted. Thousands
therefore fled Europe for America. Here, by the eighteenth century, plantations worked by slaves captured in Africa were
growing cotton and sugar for European markets.Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the
world’s richest countries. They were also pre-eminent in Asian trade. I lowever, from the fifteenth century, China is said to
have restricted overseas contacts and retreated into isolation. China’s reduced role and the rising importance of the
Americas gradually moved the centre of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged as the centre of world trade.