Ans) Some people in 18th-century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism because –

1. By the mid 18th century, there was a common belief that books were a (NCERT) 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.
2. Louise-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in 18th 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 Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading. They devour books, are lost in the world of books and become enlightened in the process.
3. Convinced of the power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism, Mercier declared “Tremble therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!”
4. By the end of 18th century, the literacy rates went upto 60 to 80 percent in some parts of Europe. As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading mania. People wanted books to read, thus printers produced books in ever increasing numbers.

Ans) Not everyone welcomed the printed book, and those who did also had fears about it. Many were suspected 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 it 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 begun to circulate.

Ans) An Example from Europe – In the 16th century, Menocchio, an Italian miller, began to read books that were available in his locality. He reinterpreted the message of the Bible that was in the protest of the Roman Catholic Church. When the Roman church began its inquisition to suppress heretical ideas, Menocchio was caught and executed. The Roman Church imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

Ans) An Example from India – The power of the printed word is most often seen in the ways government seek to regulate and suppress print. The colonial government kept continuous track of all the books and newspapers published in India.

During the First World War, under the Defence of India Rules, 22 newspapers had to furnish securities of these, 18 shut down rather than comply with government orders. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Defence of India Act allowed to censoring censor the reports of war-related topics. In August 1942, about 90 newspapers were suppressed.

Ans)

1. For centuries, Chinese silk and spices were flowed into Europe via the silk route. In the 11th century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the same route. Paper made possible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes.
2. In 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China. China already had the woodblock printing technology. Marco Polo brought this technology back with him. New Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread in other parts of Europe.
3. With the increasing demand for books, bookseller all over Europe began exporting books to many different countries. Book fairs were held at various places. Production of handwritten manuscripts was also organised in new ways to meet the growing demand.
4. The production of handwritten manuscripts, however could not keep pace with the ever-increasing demand for books. Copying was an expensive, labourise and time-consuming method, Manuscripts were delicate, difficult to handle and could not be carried around or read easily. Thus their circulations remained limited. As the demands for book were increasing, woodblock printing gradually became more and more popular. By the early 15th century, woodblocks were widely being used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures with simple and brief texts.
5. There was a great need for more quicker and cheaper reproduction of texts. This could be possible only with the invention of a new print technology which occurred at Strasbourg (Germany) where Johann Gutenberg developed the first known printing press in the 1430s. He set up his press by 1448. The first book he printed was the Bible.
6. In the hundred years between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were installed in most countries of Europe. Printers from Germany travelled to other countries and started helping new presses. Book production boomed with the growing number of printing presses. In the second half of the 15th century, 20 million copies of books flooded the markets of Europe. The member went upto about 200 million copies in the 16th century.

Ans) The invention of press was not just a dramatical change in technology. The new ways of producing books transformed the lives of people, changing their relationship to information and knowledge, and with institutions and authorities. It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things. These changes or effects of the print revolution were as follows –

1. With the new printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books. The time and labour required to produce each book came down, multiple copies could be produced with greater ease. Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever-growing readership.
2. Access to books created a new culture of reading. Earlier common people ved in a world of oral culture. They heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited and folk tales narrated. Knowledge was transferred orally.
3. 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 earlier there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being.
4. Books could be read only by the literate and the rates of literacy in most European countries were very low till the 20th century. To persuade the common people to welcome the printed books, the publishers had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed books, even those who did not read could certainly enjoy listening to books being read out.
5. Thus printers began to publish popular ballads and folktales and such books would be richly illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns.

In this way, oral cultures entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. The line that separated the oral and reading cultures became blurred. The hearing public and reading public became intermingled.

Ans) a) The poor

1. Very cheap small books were sold at crossroads in the 19th century Madras towns, which allowed poor people travelling to markets to buy them.
2. Public libraries began to set up that assured the increased access to books. These libraries were usually located in cities and towns and at times in prosperous villages. For rich local patrons, setting up a library was a way of acquiring prestige.
3. Workers in factories were overworked and had lack of education to write much about their experiences. Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, however wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade ka Sawal’ in 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation.
4. Between 1935 and 1955, the poems of another Kanpur millworker, who wrote under the name of Sudarshan Chakr were published in a collection called ‘Sacchi Kavitayan’. Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves.

b) Reformers

1. From the late 19th century, issues of caste discrimination began to be written about in many printed tracts and essays. Jyotiba Phule, a Maratha pioneer of low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste system.
2. In the 20th century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, better known as Periyar, penned strongly on caste and their writings were read by people all over India.
3. Local protest movements and sects also created a lot of popular journals and tracts criticising ancient scriptures and envisioning a new and just future.
4. Social reformers tried to eliminate the social and religious injustices. They made efforts to restrict excessive drinking among workers, to bring literacy and to propagate the message of nationalism as much as possible.

Ans)

1. By the end of 18th century, the press came to be made out of metal. Through the 19th century, there were a series of further innovations in printing technology.
2. By the mid 19th century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-driven cylindrical press which was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour. to six colours at a time.
3. The offset press was developed by the end of century, which could print up to six colours at a time.
4. From the beginning of the 20th century electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations. Other developments were also followed.
5. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced. In this way, the accumulation of several individual mechanical improvements transformed. the outlook of printed texts.
6. Printers and publishers continuously developed new strategies to sell their product. 19th century periodicals serialised novels, that gave birth to a particular way of writing novels. In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in inexpensive series called the Shilling Series.
7. With the outbreak of the Great Depression in the 1930s, publishers feared a decline in book purchase. To sustain buying, they brought out cheap paperback editions.

Ans) Print culture has an important contribution in the growth of nationalism in India. The press has been proved as a powerful medium for awakening the common masses. The contemporary newspapers, journals helped to spread the political, patriotism, nationalist ideologies. The major newspapers and journals that contributed in this work are the Amrit Bazar, Patrika, the Hindu, the Indian Mirror, the Patriot etc. The Swadeshi Mitra from Bengal and Madras, the Hindu and Kerala journals, The Advocate, The Hindustan and Azad from Uttar Pradesh, the Kohinoor from Punjab, the Akhbar-i- aam and the Tribune etc. The press had contributed significantly to spread the modern nationalism. Many papers-journals awaken the protest enthusiasm against the foreign rule by criticising the government policies openly.

Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in every corner of India. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities. Attempts to throttle nationalist criticism provoked militant protest. When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his ‘Kesari’ which in turn provoked widespread protest all over India.

Ans) . Print culture created the favourable conditions for the French Revolution. It is clarified through the following arguments-

1. Print spread 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.
2. 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 writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read widely and those who read these books saw the world through new eyes that were questioning critical and rational.
3. 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 recognise the need to question existing ideas and beliefs. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into being.
4. By the 1780s, the literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their morality was outpoured. In the process, questions were raised about the existing social order. Cartoons and caricatures expressed 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.

There can be no doubt that print helps the spread of ideas. But we must remember that people were reading all kinds of literature. If they read ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau, they were also exposed to monarchical and Church propaganda. In this way, print did not shape their minds directly, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.

Ans) Martin Luther said this:-

1. Martin Luther wrote ‘195 pieces’ criticizing the malpractices in the Roman Catholic Church.
2. He posted a copy of it on the door of the church in written Durg.
3. All this lead to a religious debate and marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation movement.
4. Thus, we see Martin Luther had rightly remarked that printing technology played role in bringing about religious reforms in the 16^th century.

Ans)

1. New forms of popular literature emerged in print, aimed at new readers. In England, alongside almanacs or religious calendars, ‘penny chapbooks’ containing village tales and folk stories were also available; these were so inexpensive (costing just a penny) that even the poor could afford them.
2. The periodical press combined information about current affairs with entertainment.
3. Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade as well as news of development in other places.
4. When scientists like Isaac Newton began publishing their discoveries, they succeeded in influencing a large group of scientifically minded readers.

Ans) Unpredicted growth, illiteracy, schools and production of books in Europe created love for reading about: –

Children:

1. Primary education became compulsary.
2. Children become an important category of readers.
3. A children’s press was set up in France.
4. Production of school textbooks become critical for the publishing industry.

Women’s:

1. Women become important as readers as well as writters.
2. Penny magazines were meant for women as well as manual, teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.
3. Some of the best-known noble states were women.

Workers:

1. Leading libraries in England become instruments for educating white-collar workers, artisans, and lower-middle-class people.
2. Workers wrote political text and autobiography.

Ans) The impact of print culture on the religious reformer in India during 19th century was as follows:

1. Print led to intense controversy between social and religious reformers and Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, the Brahmanical system, monotheistic ideology, and patriarchy.
2. Raja Ram Mohan Roy publish the “sambad kumadi” from 1821 and hindu orthodoxy commissioned the samachar chandrika’ to oppose his opinions.
3. In Bengal, as the debates developed, tracked newspapers prolifirated circulating variety of of arguments.
4. A number of muslims sacts and seminar appeared each with a different Inter- priority on the faith, each keep on unlearning. it’s following and the influence of its opponent.

Ans)

1. Rass Sundari Devi, a young married girl in Very orthodox households, learnt to read in the sacraxy of her kitchen after that, she wrote her autobiography ‘Amar Jeeva’ which was published in the 1876, it was the 1^st full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language.
2. Kailash Wassinni Devi wrote a book highlighting the experience of women- about how women were impresonet at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hand domestic labour and treat in justly by the way people they served.
3. In the 1880s, in the present day of Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of our upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.
4. In a Tamil novel, a woman described what reading meant to women who were tightly bound by social constraints for various reasons: “My world is very small—more than half of my life and happiness comes solely from books.”
5. In 1926, Rakaya, an educationist and literacy advocate, took a firm stand against denying women education in the name of religion.