NCERT Solution Class 10th History Chapter – 5 Print Culture and Modern World
| Textbook | NCERT |
| Class | 10th |
| Subject | History |
| Chapter | 5th |
| Chapter Name | Print Culture and Modern World |
| Category | Class 10th Social Science History |
| Medium | English |
| Source | Last Doubt |
| NCERT Solution Class 10th History Chapter – 5 Print Culture and Modern World Notes in this chapter we will learn such topics: Earlier Printed Books, Print comes to Europe, Johann Gutenberg, The print Revolution and its Impact, Women, Print and Reform, Printing in the early days, Printed matter Chinese tradition, Print popularized the ideas of the idea of the enlightenment thinkers and India and Print Culture and much more. |
NCERT Solution Class 10th History Chapter – 5 Print Culture and Modern World
Chapter – 5
Print Culture and Modern World
Notes
| Earlier Printed Books (i) The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea. (ii) From AD 594 onwards books in china were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks. Earliest Chinese books were made in ‘accordion’ style. (iii) Textbooks for the recruitment in civil service examinations were the major producer of this printed material. (iv) Merchants used printed material in their everyday life. (v) Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture. (vi) Buddhist missionaries of China introduced hand -printing technology into Japan around AD 768-770. (vii) The oldest Japanese book printed in AD 868 is the Buddhist ‘Diamond Sutra’. |
| Print comes to Europe (i) In the eleventh century chinese paper reached Europe through silk route. (ii) In 1295 Marco polo brought the knowledge of woodblock printing technology to Italy. (iii) To meet the increasing demand of books booksellers started giving employement to scribs and skilled handwriters. (iv) But the production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever increasing deman for books. |
| Johann Gutenberg (i) 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. (ii) Subsequently he 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 he used to design his new innovation. (iii) The olive press provided the model for the printing press and the moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet. By 1448 he perfected this system and the first book he printed was the Bible. (iv) Printed books at first closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance and layout. Between 1450- 1550 printing presses were setup in most countries of Europe. |
| The print Revolution and its Impact • With the printing press a new reading public emerged. • The time and labour required to produce each book came down. • Cost of books also reduced. • Books flooded the market reaching out to an ever growing readership. • Due to print technique a new reading public emerged in place of hearing public. • Now books could reach out to wider sections of people. |
| Religious debate and the fear of Print (i) Many feared that if there was no control over what was printed and reading then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread. (ii) Religious reformer Martin Luther King criticised many practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. (iii) Luther’s translation of the New Testament lead to the division within the church and to the beginning of the Protestant reformation. (iv) Roman Church began Inquisition to repress heretical ideas. (v) In 1558 Roman Church began to maintain an index of Prohibited Books. |
| The Reading Mania • Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages carrying literacy to peasants and artisans. • In some parts of Europe literacy rate were as high as 60-80%. • In England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty paddlers known as Chapman. • In France there was ‘Biliotheque bleue’ which were low priced small books printed on poor quality paper and bound in cheap blue covers. • A children Press, devoted to literature for children alone, was setup in France in 1857. • The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent many years compiling traditional folktales gathered from peasants. • Lending libraries had been in existence from the seventeenth century onwards. • In nineteenth century lending libraries in England became instrument for educating white collar workers, artisans and lower middle class people. • The periodical press developed from 18th century combining information about current affairs with entertainment. • The writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed and read. • In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series called the Shilling Series. • With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, publishers feared a decline in book purchases. To sustain buying, they brought out cheap paperback editions. |
| India and the World of Print • India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts- in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian as well as in various vernacular languages. • Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper. • They would be either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation. • Even though pre colonial Bengal had developed an extensive network of village primary schools, students very often did not read text. • They only learnt to write. Teachers dictated portions of texts from memory and students wrote them down. Many of them became literate without ever actually reading any kind of texts. |
| Print Comes to India (i) The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-sixteenth century. (ii) By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and in kanara language. (iii) Catholic priests printed the first tamil book in 1579 at Cochin and in 1713 the first Malayalam book was printed by them. (iv) From 1780 James Augustus Hicky began to edit a weekly magazine-The Bengal Gazette. (v) Gangadhar Bhattacharyabegan to publish Bengal Gazatte. |
| Women, Print and Reform (i) The writings of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot etc became important in defining a new type of woman: a person with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think. (ii) 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. (iii) Ram Mohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinion. (iv) From 1822, two Persian newspapers: Jam-i-Jahan Noma and Shamsul Akhbar were published. (v) The Deoband Seminari, founded in 1867 published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in everyday lives and explaining the meaning of Islamic doctrines. (vi) In 1876 Rashsundari Debi published her autobiography- Amar Jiban. (vii) In the 1880s Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper caste Hindu women, especially widows. (viii) Ram Chaddha published the fast selling Istri Dharm Vichar to teach women how to be obedient wives. (ix) In 1871 Jyotiba Phule wrote about the injustice of the caste system in his book Gulamgiri. (x) Kashibaba, a Kanpur Mill worker, wrote and published Chote aur Bade ka Saval in 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation. (xi) In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed modeled on the Irish Press Act. |
| Important Statements 1. ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one’ (Martin Luther King) 2. ‘Printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away’ (Louis Sabastian Mercier) 3. Treamble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’ (Louis Sabastian Mercier) |
| New Words Calligraphy – the art of beautiful and stylised writing is called Calligraphy. Vellum – A parchment made from the skin of animals. Platen – It is a board which is pressed onto the back of paper to get the impression from the type. Compositor – The person who composes the text for printing. Galley – Metal frame in which types are laid and text composed. Ballad – A historical account of folk tale in verse usually sung or recited. Inquisition – A former Roman Catholic court for identifying and punishing heretics. Heretical – Beliefs which donot follow the accepted teachings of the church. Sect – A subgroup of a religion. Chapbook – A term used to describe pocket size books that are sold by travelling peddlers called Chapman in England. |
| Printing in the early days Invention of Printing Press had a very lasting effect on the social and cultural life of man. Print initially developed in East Asia and later developed through Europe and India. Before the era of print or invention of Printing Press, writing of books was purely manual affair. Books were handwritten and even illustrated. Calligraphy developed as an art during that era. Calligraphy means the art of beautiful and stylish writing. |
| Printed matter Chinese tradition Chinese were the first to have a system of recruitment of civil service personal through open examination. Printing remained confined to examination materials till around the 16th century. Trade information was circulated among the traders through printed materials. By 19th century mechanical printing press made its appearance in China.The First Printing Press was invented in 1430s by Johann Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg’s Bible was the most beautiful books ever printed. Germany took the lead in revolutionizing printing all over Europe. |
| Features of handwritten manuscripts (i) They were copied on palm leaves or on handmade papers. Pages were beautifully illustrated. (ii) They were pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation. (iii) Manuscripts were available in vernacular languages. They were highly expensive and fragile. (iv) They could not be read easily as script was written in different styles. They were not widely used in everyday life. |
| Woodblock method became 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. |
| Visual culture 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. Painters like Raja Ravi Verma produced images for mass circulation. Cheap prints and calendars were brought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their houses. |
| Print popularized the ideas of the idea of the enlightenment thinkers (i) Collectively the writings of thinkers provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism. (ii) 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. (iii) 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. (iv) 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. |
| Development of reading mania in Europe A new forms 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. In France these low priced books were called ‘Bibliotheque Bleue’ as they were bound in cheap blue covers. Periodical presses developed to combine information on current affairs with entertainment. The idea of scientists and scholars had now become more accessible to the common people. |
| Impact of print on Indian women Writers started writing about the lives of women and this increased the number of women readers. Women writers began to write their own autobiographies. They highlighted the condition of women, their ignorance and how they were forced to do hard domestic labor. A large section of Hindu writing was devoted to the education of women. In the early 20th century the journals written by women became very popular in which women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage were discussed. |
| Print culture created the conditions within which the French Revolution 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 1780s mocked the royalty and criticized their morality and the existing social order. |
| India and Print Culture Print culture came to India with the coming of Portuguese missionaries. Konkani was the first Indian language in which books were printed. The first Tamil book printed was printed in 1579 and Malayalam book in 1713. English printing in India commenced with the publication of Bengal Gazette in 1780. Printed tracts played a very significant role in the spread of social reform movement in India. |
| The Vernacular Press Act In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed by the British Government to impose restrictions on vernacular press, which was responsible for spreading nationalist ideas. The government started to keep a regular track of the vernacular newspapers and had extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. 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. |
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