History Ch 5 PRINT CULTURE

1. The First Printed Books

From AD 594, The printing of books began in China. The technique of

rubbing paper was used to print the books. Later on inked surface
woodblocks came into use. As it was difficult to print both sides of a sheet
during those days, therefore, the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book’
was folded and stitched at the side. The other way of writing books was to
duplicate the matter with great accuracy, which was done by the
calligraphers. Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable
accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy.

For a very long time, China was the major producer of the printed
material. It was so, because China was one such imperial state that had a
huge number of bureaucrats. For the recruitment of these bureaucrats
China used to conduct a civil services examination. So, a large number of
books were printed under the sponsorship of imperial state which could
serve the aspirants who wanted to appear for the examination.

An increase in the number of printed books was seen during the

sixteenth century. It was so, because the number of candidates for such
examination had increased tremendously.
By the seventeenth century, the use of print began to diversify. It was no
longer used only by the students but also by various other groups. For
instance, merchants started using the print in order to collect the trade
information and readers started using it as a leisure activity.

The new readers started preferring books on fiction, poetry,

autobiography etc. Even rich women who had the habit of reading also
began writing and publishing poetry and plays. Wives of scholars’ officials
published their works and courtesans wrote about their own lives.

All this led to the import of technology into China which was the western
printing techniques and mechanical presses. Soon Shanghai became the
hub of the new print culture that catered the western style schools. So,
this time period show a shift from hand printing to mechanical printing in
China.
Print in Japan
Around AD 768-770 the hand printing technology began in Japan. This
technique was brought into Japan by the Buddhist missionaries from
China. The oldest printed book in Japan was Buddhist Diamond Sutra
which was printed in AD 868. It had six sheets of test and woodcut
illustrations. Soon printing technique began to be used for printing
pictures on textiles, playing cards and paper money. The usage of
printing technique is also evident in medieval Japan because of the
printing of large number of poems and prose. Books were cheap and
abundant.

Later on a new idea of printing came into being. It was printing of the
visual materials. In the late eighteenth century, Edo urban city now
known as Tokyo became a flourishing centre of the visual printing.
The paintings consist of artists, courtesans, teahouse gatherings etc.
Libraries were often full of books having hand printed material of various
types for example books on women, musical instruments, calculations,
tea ceremonies, cooking, etc.

2. Print Comes to Europe

Europe was one of the importers of silk and spices from China. All these
goods used to enter Europe through silk route. The very silk route made
the way for Chinese paper to enter into Europe. It was paper that made
the production of manuscripts possible. In 1295 a great explorer Marco
Polo who had spent years in exploring China brought with him the
woodblock printing technique to Europe from China. With this the
woodblock printing began in Italy too. This technology spread to other
parts of Europe too. Merchants and students in the University towns
started buying the cheaper copy prints for their use. But still there were
some elites who did not prefer the printed material as they considered it
cheap and vulgar. For them editions were stillwritten on the animal skin
(Vellum) which were very expensive.

As the demand for books was increasing day by day, therefore, the
booksellers started exporting books to various other parts of Europe.
Book fairs were organized at different places. The booksellers also started
production of handwritten books in a different way so as to meet the
growing demand of books. Scribes which were earlier employed by rich
people only were now being employed by the booksellers to write
editions for them. It is evident with the fact that around 50 scribes were
engaged by the single bookseller only.
But soon it was found that handwritten manuscripts could not meet
the growing demand of the books. Copying was not only laborious and
time consuming but expensive too. So, now there was a need for
something which could help in meeting up the demand and one, which
should be less costly. Therefore, woodblock printing became a widely
used printing technique in Europe. Soon the technique was also used in
printing playing cards, printing textiles and also in printing of religious
pictures with simple brief texts.

As the demand was growing every other day, this led to the dire need of a
new technique which was faster and cheaper. This was possible only if
some invention in this area was done. The breakthrough occurred with
the invention of the printing press in 1430s by Johann Gutenberg in
Germany.

Gutenberg and the printing press

Gutenberg was a merchant’s son who had lived on a large agricultural
estate since his childhood. From his childhood he had seen wine and olive
presses. As he had learnt the art of polishing stones so he grew up to be
a master goldsmith who could create lead moulds used for making
trinkets. Gutenberg with his creativity used olive press to make a printing
press, he used moulds in order to cast the metal types for the letters of
the alphabet.
By 1448 Gutenberg improved the system of his invention. The first
book he printed was the Bible. He with his invention was able to
produce 180 copies of the Bible in three years. This was a fast production
method during those times.

Though the new technology was fast but it could not replace the old way
of printing. In fact, printed books were nothing but the resemblance of
the handwritten manuscripts. The metal letters were imitated. Borders
were illuminated by hand and illustrations were painted. There were few
editions which were kept exclusively for the rich readers. The specialty of
these books were, the blank columns left for the painting to be done as
per the choice of the readers. The readers could choose the design and
decide even on the painting school for painting the illustrations.
The time period of1450-1550 saw a set up of various printing presses in
most countries of Europe. The Germans started travelling to other
countries to search for work and help other people in starting up the new
presses. As the number of printing presses was increasing, this led to the
increase in the production of books. The second half of the 15th century
saw the production of 20 million copies of printed books that overtook
the European market. This number later went up to 200 million copies in
the 16th century.
This shift of printing from hand to mechanical brought the print
revolution.

3. The Print Revolution and Its Impact

When we talk about print revolution, it doesn’t mean that we are talking
about a new technique or the increase in the production of books. Here
we talk about the impact of print revolution on the lives of people and
how it changed and influenced the perception of people. To understand
this, let’s have a look at this.

A New Reading Public

The printing press brought a new reading public. It was so because it
reduced the cost of books. Earlier producing a book was laborious and
costly task. But with the invention of new techniques the books could be
produced in large numbers and at a cheaper price. This led to the
flooding of books in the market making it possible to reach the large
number of readers.

Easy reach of the books led to the growth of reading culture. In olden
times, it was meant only for elites. Common people lived in a world of
oral culture. When we talk about oral culture this means that they used to
hear sacred texts read out, ballads were recited and folk tales were
narrated. So, basically knowledge was transferred to them orally. It was
so because the books being produced were not only costly but few in
numbers. But soon the situation change, now the books were easily
available which turned the public from hearing to reading public.

The transition was not so simple. As we know that books could be read
only by the literates and large number of population was illiterate,
therefore, publishers found out a new way. They started producing books
which had popular folk tales, ballads etc. These books had interesting
pictures. All this was done to arouse the curiosity of the listeners of the
book. These books were read out at gatherings in the villages or in
taverns in towns.

Though print technique had brought material to be read for the large
number of people it also brought an idea of publishing your own thinking
and ideas about something. People soon began to print what they feel
about the old philosophies and practices. Let’s check this.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

Print made it possible to circulate ideas to a wide range of people. All this
led to a new world of debate and discussion. Those who had a different
view other than what established authorities had could now print their
ideas and circulate them with the help of print. The printed material
started aiding them by persuading people to think differently. This
proved important in different spheres of life.
The print technology and printed books were not appreciated by
everyone. Some people had their fears in connection with the printed
books. They had this fear that as printed books had a wider circulation
this can prove harmful if some irreligious or rebellious material is printed
for the readers. So, people from groups such as the religious authorities,
monarchs, writers and artists were not in favor of the printed books. It
was so because they thought that this could destroy our valuable
literature and lead to the increase of rebellious and irreligious thoughts.
To understand this let us consider the implication of this in one sphere of
life i.e. religion.

In 1517, Martin Luther a religious reformer wrote 95 theses criticizing

some of the rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. He pasted a printed
copy of this on the door of the Wittenberg church. He Challenged the
Church to debate on this. His writings were immediately reproduced and
circulated which were widely read. All this led to a division within the
Church and this lead to the beginning of Protestant reformation.
The testament of Luther sold around 5000 copies within few weeks and a
second edition appeared within three months. Luther was thankful to the
technique of printing as it led to the coming of a new intellectual
atmosphere.

Print and Dissent

The printing of popular religious literature sometimes led to the
distinctive interpretation of religion by the various individuals. Take for
example Menocchio, a miller in Italy interpreted the Bible in his own way
and formulated a view of God and Creation of Roman Catholic Church,
which was different from the point of view of the Church. He was then
severely punished and executed for being heretical in his ideas. The word
heretical is used for the person whose beliefs differ from the beliefs of
Catholic Church. Later on a step was taken by the Roman church of
maintaining an index of prohibited books from 1558 in order to curb
down the publishing of books which were against the Church beliefs.
As print technology had made it easier to publish a large number of
books in a very short span of time, this resulted in the inculcation of the
habit of reading among the people.

4. The Reading Mania

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the literacy rate

went up in most parts of Europe. It was so because the Churches had
begun to set up schools in villages which helped in imparting education
to peasants and artisans. This led to an increase in the literacy rates in
Europe which one could easily sense with the figures that during the
eighteenth century, the literacy rates were between 60 to 80 percent. As
more and more people were getting educated this led to the emergence
of a new mania known as reading mania among the people.

As people wanted to read more and more so the publishers started

printing books of various types in order to target new audiences.
Booksellers use employ pedlars who would take books to various villages
and sell them. They also started producing ritual calendars along with
ballads and folktales. In England penny chapbooks were sold by the
Chapmen for a penny. Similarly Biliotheque Bleue a small low priced book
printed on poor quality paper began to be sold in France. There were a
number of books which were being published in various sizes and with
various purposes such as books on romances and histories to serve the
purpose of the reader.

Soon the printing of newspapers and journals began that carry news of
wars and trade and other developments too.

Just like that, ideas of scientists and philosophers could also reach the
common people through print. Various new and old scientific ideas,
diagrams and maps started being published for the readers. Now the
ideas of famous scientists such as Issac Newton or the thinkers like
Thomas Paine, Jean Jacques Rousseau were now widely printed and read.
Thus we can say that ideas about science and reason found their way into
popular literature.
So, by the mid eighteenth century it became a common conviction that
books are the best medium to spread progress and enlightenment.
People start believing that books can bring a positive change to the
world.

Louise Sebastian Mercier ,a novelist in France declared that print is

the most powerful engine of progress.
Till now we have studied how print aided in spreading scientific ideas and
knowledge to different groups of societies. Now we will study how it
played an important role in the French Revolution.

Print Culture and the French Revolution

Historians say that it was print culture that leads to the French
Revolution. For this they put forward three types of arguments. Let’s
have a look at this.
First: print made the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers and collectively,
their writings provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition
popular among the public. As these writers argued for the rule of reason
rather than custom, people began to follow them. These writers not only
questioned the authority of Church but also queried the social order
based on tradition. Writers such as Voltaire and Rousseau made people
think in different ways, this led the public to question and criticize the
prevailing practices and tradition.

Second: The second argument is that print created a new culture of

debate and dialogue. All those values, norms and practices which were
being followed from years were now being questioned. People started
evaluating the social norms. The public became aware of the power of
reason and question. One can say that a social revolution began to occur.

Third: By 1780s it was seen that literature began to mock the royalty and
their morality. They started questioning about the morality and
responsibility of the royalty. Various cartoons and caricatures were made
to criticize the royalty for leading a luxurious life without even caring for
the common people who were bearing hardships.
So, here we can say that print was for sure changing the way people
thought. But here also one should keep in mind that readers were not
only reading Rousseau or Voltaire but they were also reading what
church and monarchy had to say. Therefore, it was the public’s opinion,
whom they wanted to favor or whom they wanted to reject. This means
that print did influence the thinking of people still there were some other
ideas too which were occupying the minds of people.

5. The Nineteenth Century

As literacy rate grew in the nineteenth century in Europe, which resulted
in the increase in the number of readers among children, women and
workers.

Children, Women and Workers

During the 19th century, primary education became compulsory. Now a
new set of readers, the children became an important category.
Publishing industries started printing textbooks for them, later on
children’s press was set up in France in 1857. This press published books
fairy and folk tales for children. Grimm Brothers in Germany also
collected various folk tales from peasants and compiled them into a book.
During those days it was necessary to remove all objectionable content
from the book which was not suitable for kids or elites. So, we can say
that print began to record old tales and also began to change them a bit.
Later on women also became important readers.Penny Books were
published especially for them. Soon manuals on proper behavior and
housekeeping began to be printed for them. When novels began to be
written in the nineteenth century, women were one of the important
readers. Later on many women writers such as Jane Austen, Bronte
Sisters, George Eliot etc became famous with their writings and defined
women as strong person who had determination and the power to think.

It was also seen during this time period that lending libraries became an
important place for educating white collar workers, artisans and middle-
class people. After the day’s work was over, they could come in the
libraries to devote some time for self improvement by writing political
tracts and autobiographies.
Later on some more innovations were seen in the nineteenth
century.

Further innovations
During the nineteenth century various innovations and improvements in
printing technology were seen. By the mid nineteenth century Richard
M. Hoe of New York improved the power driven cylindrical press. This
machine could print 8000 sheets per hour. This type of printing ability
was very important for printing newspapers. Later the offset press was
developed which had the ability to print up to six colors at a time. In the
twentieth century electrically operated presses began their operations.
Some more development were made that led to the improvement in the
feeding paper, plates, paper reels etc. Various forms of developments
transformed the look of printed texts.

In order to sell their books, publishers tried out new ways such as the
Shilling Series which were basically the cheap books published in England
during the 1920s. Some other innovations were dust cover or the book
jacket. To sustain the great depression of 1930s publishes made cheap
paperback editions.
Now we know how print began and improved in various parts of Europe.

6. India and the World of Print

So, now we will see how print began in India but before this we must
know how it used to be before the age of print in India.
Manuscripts before the age of Print
Before the age of print, India had an old and rich tradition of writing
manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and various other vernacular
languages. These manuscripts were written on either palm leaves or
the handmade paper. They were then placed between wooden covers or
were sewn together in order to preserve them.

Manuscripts were generally expensive and it was hard to preserve them

for a long time. They were not even legible because the scripts were
written in different styles. So, manuscripts were not widely used. Before
the colonization of India, a wide network of primary schools was
developed in Bengal but the students in these schools never read any
text. They only learnt to write. The system followed in these schools was
that teachers used to dictate some portions of books or texts and
students had to write that. So, we can say that they became literate
without ever reading any text.

Print comes to India

When we talk about how printing began in India. The answer is that the
printing press first came to Goa with the Portuguese missionaries in mid
sixteenth century. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and began to print in
Konkani. By 1674, around 50 books were printed in the Konkani and
Kanara languages. Catholic priests began printing Tamil books in 1579 at
Cochin and in 1713 the first Malayalam book in India was printed. Dutch
protestant missionaries printed 32 Tamil texts.

IN 1780, James Augustus Hickey started with the edit of the Bengali
Gazette. It was a weekly magazine. This magazine described itself as a
commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none. Hickey’s magazine
was independent from colonial influence. He used to publish
advertisements including the import and sale of slaves. But he also
published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior officials in India.

To control this, Governor –General Warren Hastings started sanctioning

newspapers and control the flow of information that could damage the
image of colonial government. Later on various Indians newspapers also
began to print by the Indians. The first to appear was Bengal Gazette
which was a weekly newspaper by Gangadhar Bhattacharya who was
close to Rammohun Roy.

As printing became common and allowed people to publish their

thoughts and ideas, it led to the beginning or public debates.

7. Religious Reform and Public Debates

Early 19th century is seen as a beginning of various debates and
religious issues. Different groups began confronting about the changes
that were taking place in society during the colonial period. People began
criticizing the existing practices and started campaigning against them.
Whereas there were some who were against the reformers. Print helped
in sharing their thoughts and ideas with the public. A wider public could
now participate in these public discussions and express their views
through the print technology.

This time period was of intense controversies. People began to challenge

Hindu orthodoxy related with widow immolation, monotheism,
Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. In Bengal various newspapers
began with circulating various types of arguments. To reach a wider
audience, the thoughts and ideas of reformers were printed in everyday
language.

Rammohan Roy began publishing the Sambad kaumudi from 1821 on the
other side Samachar Chandrika was published by Hindu orthodoxy to
oppose his opinions. Later on two Persian newspapers were published
named Jam-I Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar. Even a Gujarati
newspaper, the Bombay Samachar made its appearance in the same
year.
In north India Ulama were worried about the collapse of Muslim
dynasties. They feared that the colonial rule will try to change the Muslim
personal laws. They could have also tried to convert the Muslims. Such
things led to the printing of Holy Scriptures by using cheap Lithographic
presses. Soon the printing of religious newspapers and tracts in Urdu
began in India. The Deoband Seminary which was founded in 1867,
began publishing Fatwas to advise Muslim readers how to conduct
themselves in their everyday lives and explaining various Islamic
doctrines. So, during nineteenth century a number of Muslim sects
published their work on interpretation of faith with the aim of increasing
their following and countering their opponents.

On the other hand among Hindus, print technology encouraged the

reading of religious texts in the vernacular languages. In 1810 a first print
of Ramcharitmanas written by Tulsidas was released in Calcutta. Later on
in mid nineteenth century there was a flood of cheap lithographic books
in the north Indian markets. From the 1880s Naval Kishore Press at
Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar press in Bombay began publishing a
large number of religious texts in vernaculars. As these books could be
purchased from various places.They could also be read out to large
groups of illiterate men and women. Religious texts therefore reached to
the wider circle of public.

Print not only stimulates the printed conflicted opinions among different
communities but it also helped in bringing the communities together.

8. New Forms of Publication

Printing created a base for new kinds of writing. As the number of
readers was increasing day by day, they started expecting something
which could reflect their daily lives, experiences, emotions etc. Well this
need was facilitated by the novel, a literary firm in Europe. It soon
acquired as per the Indian form and style. This introduced Indian readers
with a world of experiences and diversity of human lives.

Very soon some new forms of literature entered into the world of reading
such as lyrics, short stories, essays related to social and political matters.
All such literary content laid its emphasis on human lives.
By the end of the nineteenth century, a new change was seen that was
production of images.

With the setting up of large number of printing presses in India

creating a multiple copies of visual images became easy. Raja Ravi
Varma one of the famous Indian painters began producing his images for
mass circulation. Even poor wood engravers began setting up shops near
the letterpresses. They were then employed by the print shops. The
cheap prints and calendars were even bought by the poor to decorate the
walls of their houses. These prints later on began to shape the popular
ideas about modernity and tradition.

By the 1870s cartoons and caricatures were being used by the

journals in order to comment on social issues. Even these cartoons
were sometimes used to oppose those educated Indians who favor
western tastes and clothes while others were used to depict the fear of
social change. Similarly there were some cartoons which were used to
express the criticism against the imperial rule.

As printing was putting impact on the lives of various social groups and
people, so, it also brought some change in the lives of women in India.

As feelings of women began to publish in various writings this arose

interest of women and they began to read. Some liberal husbands and
fathers began educating women in their homes or some even allowed
them to go to schools. All this happened because in many of the city
schools for girls were being set up by the authorities. Many journals even
began to publish writings of women. They laid stress on the education of
women and its importance. Sometimes reading matter and syllabus was
also attached in order to help those who were carrying their studies from
home.

But here also there were some contradictions, there were some
conservative Hindus who believed that educated girls became widow
whereas Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted if
they read Urdu romances. But there were some rebel women who
defied such prohibitions. There is one instance where a Muslim girl from
North India secretly learnt to read and write in Urdu. Her family wanted
her to read only the Arabic Quran which was difficult for her to
understand so she stressed on learning her own language.

On the other hand in East Bengal Rashsundari Debi a young married girl
from an orthodox family began learning from her kitchen. Later
Rashsundari wrote an autobiography Amar Jiban which was published in
1876.
Social reforms and novels had already created a sort of interest in
women’s lives and emotions. This also led to a curiosity among people as
to what they want to say about their lives.
A few Bengali women like Kailashbashini debi wrote books on how
women had to face hardships by getting confined in their homes, doing
all the domestic chores and how they were ill treated by the other family
members.

In the 1880s Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai of Maharashtra

wrote books on the miserable lives of upper caste Hindu women,
especially for widows. Even a woman in a Tamil Novel expressed how she
received happiness from reading books.
Among various languages such as Urdu, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi and
Hindi, it was Hindi printing that began seriously from the 1870s before
this other languages except Hindi had developed. Most of the time, it was
seen that large segments were generally devoted to the education of
women. In the early twentieth century a new trend began, It was the
publication of journals written for and sometimes edited by women.

These journals used to have content related to women’s education,

widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement. Sometimes
there were topics related to fashion and entertainment that included
short stories and novels.

Similar type of literature was also seen in Punjab. Here also publishers
started printing books which taught women how to be obedient wives.
Some of such publishers were Ram Chaddha who published Istri Dharam
Vichar and the other was the Khalsa Tract society. These books were
cheap and were in the form of dialogues.

In Bengal, Battala a central area in Calcutta was popular for printing

popular books. They used to publish cheap editions of religious tracts
and scriptures. By the late nineteenth century, books could be seen with
illustrations of woodcuts and colored lithographs. Pedlars began selling
these books in the households of Bengal enabling women to read them
in their free time.

Print and the Poor People

In Madras small books which were cheap in price began to be sold in the
markets so that it becomes easy for poor to buy them. Even public
libraries were also setup in towns, cities and villages. This enabled
everyone including poor to read the books.

From the late nineteenth century various people began to write on the
social and caste discrimination in their books. Jyotiba Phule, who is
famous as Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movement wrote about
the bearings of low caste in his famous book ‘ghulamgiri’ (1871). In the
twentieth century some more writers such as B.R Ambedkar in
Maharashtra and E.V Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras began to write
powerfully on caste. All such content was then read by a large number of
people in India.

Later on many mill and factory workers who were fed up of the
adversities of their lives also began to write. Some of them, who were
literate, began writing about the hardships that were borne by them.
One such was Kashibaba of Kanpur who published Chhote Aur Bade
Ka Sawal in 1938 and later on a collection of poems was published in
a book known as Sachi Kavitayan . It was a set of poems written by
Sudarshan Chakr a pen name used by one mill worker. By the 1930s
Bangalore cotton mill workers set up libraries to educate themselves
following the footsteps of Bombay mill workers. These libraries were
generally sponsored by social reformers who wanted to educate these
mill workers and wanted to propagate the message of nationalism.

9. Print and Censorship

When we talk about the time period before 1798, The East India Company
was not too concerned about the censorship of print. In its early attempts
of censorship, The company controlled the printed matter of those
Englishmen in India who opposed the misrule of Company. The company
was more worried about any possibility of losing its monopoly to trade in
India.

In the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme court passed some regulations which
directed the Company to control the freedom of the press. Only those
newspapers were supported by the Company that favored the British
rule. But in 1835, Governor General William Bentinck had to revise
press laws due to the petitions filed by various English and
Vernacular newspapers. Thomas Maculay also laid some new rules in
order to restore back the earlier freedom of press.

The revolt of 1857 changed the whole scenario. Colonial government

began to control all the vernacular press. In 1878, Vernacular press Act
was passed in order to control all the content being published by
these presses. From now onwards the government began to keep
regular watch on what was being published.

If a press was found guilty, it was warned and if it did not comply with the
warning then the press was seized and machinery was confiscated.

Although repressive measures were being used still it did not stop the
growing number of nationalist newspapers in India. These newspapers
opposed the colonial rule and encouraged national activities in India. All
this led to a new form of militant protest. When Punjab revolutionaries
were deported in 1907, Balgangadhar included this in his newspaper
Kesari. The British government arrested him in 1908 for writing such
articles. This led to widespread protest all over India.