History

Date: 09/10/2024

Print Culture and Modern World

Very Short Type Questions

1. What is calligraphy? The art of stylish writing.

2.. What was Gutenberg’s first printed book? Bible

3. What were ’Penny chap books’? Pocket – sized books

4. Who introduced the printing press in India. Portuguese

5. Who wrote ‘My childhood My university’. Maxim Gorky

6. When was the Vernacular press act passed? 1878

7. Who said, ―Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one Martin Luther

8. Which is the oldest printed book of Japan Diamond Sutra

9. Who wrote 95 theses? Martin Luther

10. Who authored Gita Govinda? Jayadeva

Short Answers Type Questions

1. Explain the features of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print in India.

 They were copied on palm leaves or on handmade papers.

 Pages were beautifully illustrated.
 They were pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.
 Manuscripts were available in vernacular languages.
 Highly expensive & fragile.
 They could not be read easily as script was written in different styles.
 They were not widely used in everyday life.

2. Why did the woodblock method become popular in Europe?

 Production of handwritten manuscripts could not meet the ever-increasing demand for books.
 Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.
 The manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle and could not be carried around or read easily.
 By the early 15th century, woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to print textiles,
 playing cards and religious pictures with simple, brief texts.

3. What was the role of new visual image culture in printing in India?

 In the end of 19th century, a new visual culture had started.

 With the increasing number of printing presses visual images could be easily reproduced in
multiple copies.

o Painters like - Raja Ravi Verma, produced images for mass circulation.
o Cheap prints and calendars were brought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their
houses.

4. Print popularized the ideas of the idea of the enlightenment thinkers. Explain.

 Collectively the writings of thinkers provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition and
despotism.
 Scholars and thinkers argued for the rule of reason rather than custom and demanded that
everything to 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 eroding
the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition.
 The writing 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.

5. Describe any three factors which contributed to the development of print technology.

 Handwritten manuscripts could not meet the increasing demand for books
 Manuscripts were fragile, difficult handle
 Wood block printing, brought from China gradually became more popular. Johann Gutenberg
developed the first -known printing in1430s

Long Answer type Questions

1. How print revolution led to the development of reading mania in Europe.

As literacy and schools spread in European countries there was a virtual reading mania.

 A new form of popular literature appeared to target new readers

 There were ritual calendars along with ballads and folk tales.
 In England penny chapbooks were carried by petty peddlers known as chapmen and sold for a
penny, so that even poor could buy them.
 In France these law priced books were called Bibliotheque Bleue as they were bound in cheap
blue covers.
 There were romances, histories, books of various sixes, serving developed to combine information
on current affairs with entertainment.
 Periodical pressed developed to combine information on current affairs with entertainment.
 The idea of scientists and scholars had now become more accessible to the common people.
2. How did oral culture enter print and how was the printed material transmitted orally? Explain

Oral culture entered print into the following ways

 Printers published popular ballads and folktales.

 Books were profusely illustrated with pictures. Printed material was transmitted orally in the
following ways.

 These were sung at gathering in villages, taverns and in towns.

 They were recited in public gathering.

3. Explain the impact of print on Indian women.

 Writers started writing about the lives and features of women and this increased the number of
women readers.
 Women writers write their own autobiography. They highlighted the condition of women, their
ignorance and how they forced to do hard domestic labour.
 A large section of Hindu writing was devoted to the education of women.
 In the early 20th century, the journals written by women become very popular in which women’s
education, widowhood, widow remarriage were discussed.
 Many writers published how to teach women to be obedient wives.

4. By the end of the 19th century a new visual cultural was taking shapes. Write any three features
of this new visual cultural.

 Visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.

 Printers produced images for mass circulation cheap prints and calendars could be brought even
by the poor.
 By the 1870‘s caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers.
 Mass production of cost and visual images reduced the cost of production. So cheap prints and
calendars were available in the market even for the poor to decorate the walls of their homes.

5. Many Histories have argued that print culture created the conditions within which the French
Revolution occurred. Explain.

 The print popularized the ideas of the enlightened thinkers who attacked the authority of the
church and the despotic power of the state.
 The print created a new culture of dialogue and debate and the public become aware of reasoning.
They recognized the need to question the existing ideas and beliefs.
 The literature of 1780‘s mocked the royalty and criticized their morality and the existing social
order. This literature led to the growth of hostile sentiments against

Source based questions

1. Read the text carefully and answer the questions:

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 life. Not 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. In 1517, the religious reformer
Martin Luther wrote Ninety- five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman
Catholic Church. It challenged the Church to debate his ideas. Luther’s writings were immediately
reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This leads to a division within the Church and to the
beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Deeply grateful to print, Luther said, ‘Printing is the ultimate
gift of God and the greatest one.’

i. Why were Martin Luther’s Theses a challenge to Church in Europe?

Ninety-Five Theses criticised many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. It
challenged the Church to debate his ideas.

ii. Why were people afraid of the newly printed books entering the market?

 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.

iii. Enumerate the benefits of prints with respect to dissenters of established authorities.

 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.

2. Read the text carefully and answer the questions

The lives and feelings of women began to be written in particularly vivid and intense ways. Women’s
reading, therefore, increased enormously in middle-class homes. Liberal husbands and fathers began
educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to schools when women’s schools were set up in the
cities and towns after the mid-nineteenth century. Many journals began carrying writings by women and
explained why women should be educated. They also carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading
matter which could be used for home-based schooling. But 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 romances. Sometimes, rebel women defied such prohibition. We know the
story of a girl in a conservative Muslim family of north India who secretly learnt to read and write in
Urdu. Her family wanted her to read only the Arabic Quran which she did not understand. So, she insisted
on learning to read a language that was her own. In East Bengal, in the early nineteenth century,
Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox household, learnt to read in the secrecy of her
kitchen. Later, she wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban which was published in 1876. It was the first
full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language.
i. Give the contribution of journals in bringing awareness for women’s education?

Many journals began carrying writings by women and explained why women should be educated. They
also carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading matter which could be used for home-based
schooling.

ii. What was the impact of printed books on women in India in the 19th century?

The impacts of printed books on women in India in the 19th century was:

 Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to schools
when women’s schools were set up in the cities and towns after the mid-nineteenth century.
 Many journals began carrying writings by women and explained why women should be educated.
They also carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading matter which could be used for home-
based schooling.

iii. What were the negative conceptions regarding the education imparted to women?

The negative conceptions regarding the education imparted to women were

 Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed.

 Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.