Print Culture and the Modern World Class 10 Notes Social Science History Chapter 7
The First Printed Books
The earliest print technology-a system of hand painting—was developed in China, Japan and Korea. Post AD 594, China started producing books and prints by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks. As the paper was porous both the sides could not be printed. The traditional Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side.
Superbly skilled craftsmen duplicated calligraphy accurately.
Important
The imperial state in China produced a huge amount of printed material. Since China recruited most bureaucrats by Civil service examinations, it had to provide the study material required for its aspiring students The imperial state of China sponsored the printing of these books.
The number and scale of production kept increasing due to rise in number of students from the 16th century onwards.
The 17th century saw diversification of the print due to the blooming of urban culture. Printed material went beyond the scholar-officials.
Merchants collected trade information on paper. Reading became a leisure activity.
Fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays fascinated the new readership. Wives of the scholar-officials and women of the upper classes began to read and publish their own works. Even courtesans reproduced accounts of their lives.
The new reading culture brought with it a new technology in the form of mechanical printing. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the late nineteenth century as Western powers established their outposts in China. Shanghai was made the centre of the new print culture and catered to the Western-style schools.
Print in Japan:
Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around AD 768-770.
The Buddhist Diamond Sutra, published in 868 AD was the oldest Japanese book to be printed. It had six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.
Pictures were qlso printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money.
In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers regularly published their works. Printing of visual material caused interesting publishing practices. During the 18th century, in urban circles at Edo, paintings depicted an elegant urban culture. Libraries and bookstores had various hand-printed materials on women, musical instruments, calculations, tea ceremony, flower arrangements, proper etiquette, cooking and famous places.
Frequently Asked
Edo came to be known as Tokyo later.
The Tripitaka Koreana are a Korean collection of Buddhist scriptures. They were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2007.
Kitagawa Utamaro, born in Edo in 17S3, contributed to an art form called ukiyo (‘pictures of the floating world) or depiction of ordinary human experiences, especially urban ones.
Print Comes To Europe
Paper went through the same silk route from China to Europe which also facilitated the transportation of silk and spices.
Manuscripts written by scribes were printed on paper. The journey of print from China to Italy can be traced as follows:
- Marco Polo introduced the technique of woodblock printing to Italy after learning it during his exploration in China. Italians began producing books with woodblocks and transferred the technology all over Europe. Luxury editions were handwritten on expensive vellum, meant for aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries because to them, printed books were cheap and of poor quality. Merchants and students from university towns bought the cheaper printed copies.
- Booksellers of Europe exported books to many different countries due to its rising demand. Book fairs were organized. New techniques of production of handwritten manuscripts were employed.
- Scribes or skilled hand writers were employed more often and by booksellers more than wealthy individuals. The ever-increasing demand for books could not be satisfied by the production of handwritten manuscripts.
- Copying was expensive, time-consuming and laborious. Manuscripts were fragile and could not be carried around. This limited their circulation.
- Woodblock printing became popular. By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks were being used to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with short texts.
The invention of a new print technology at Strasbourg, Germany i.e. the printing press in the 1430s made printing cheaper. The printing press was developed by Johann Gutenberg.
Example 1.
Source Based:
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow:
Marco Polo brought this knowledge back 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 aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries which scoffed at printed books as cheap vulgarities. Merchants and students in the university towns bought the cheaper printed copies. 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.
(A) Where did Marco Polo bring the information about printing from?
(a) Japan
(b) France
(c) India
(d) China
Answer:
(d) China
Explanation: Marco Polo went to China and explored its cultures and practices. Upon returning to Italy in 1295, he carried the knowledge of printing with him. There, he introduced it and brought a complete revolution.
(B) Which of the following statements about printing revolution and technology is true?
(I) Woodblock printing originated in China.
(II) From Italy, the technology spread all over Europe.
(III) Printing press was invented in Germany.
(IV) Prints were in wide demand but were not accepted by some aristocratic classes.
(a) (I) & (IV) only
(b) (II) only
(c) (III) & (IV) only
(d) (I), (II), (III) & (IV)
Answer:
(d) (I), (II), (III) & (IV)
Explanation: Woodblock printing originated in China where it caused a complete revolution. The demand of books and printing materials rose.
The technology of woodblock printing was carried to Italy by Marco Polo, from where the technology spread all over Europe.
The printing press was invented in Strasbourg, Germany by Johannes Gutenberg.
Prints were in wide demand but were not accepted by some aristocratic classes. They believed printed copies were cheap.
(C) What is vellum?
Answer:
Vellum was a parchment made of the skin of animals. It was used as a paper to write books for the rich.
(D) Assertion (A): Scribes or skilled hand writers were no longer solely employed by wealthy or influential patrons
Reason(R): They were employed by booksellers as well because the demand for the books was rising.
(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
(b) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
(c) (A) is correct but (R) is wrong
(d) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.
Answer:
(a) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
Frequently Asked
The Jikji of Korea is among the world’s oldest existing books printed with movable metal type.
It contains the essential features of Zen Buddhism.
Gutenberg and the Printing Press:
Gutenberg grew up on an agricultural estate where he had seen wine and olive presses. He learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, learnt how to create lead moulds used for making trinkets. Gutenberg adapted existing technology to design his innovation.
Moulds became metal types for the letters of the alphabet. The olive press provided a model for the printing press. He made the system perfect by 1448. He printed the Bible first. It took 3 years to produce 180 copies which was fast and efficient production at that time. The existing art of producing books by hand continued to be in use.
Printed books resembled the written manuscripts. The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles. Hand with foliage and other patterns were drawn on borders. Illustrations were painted. Space for decoration was kept blank on the printed page for the rich. The designs and the painting school that would do the illustrations could be personally chosen. Printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe by the 1550s. Printers from Germany travelled to other countries to spread the technology. Book production boomed.
Almost 20 million copies of printed books were printed by the end of the 15th century. This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.
The Print Revolution and Its Impact
The print revolution transformed the lives of people, heavily transforming their relationship with information, knowledge, institutions and authorities. It influenced popular perceptions.
A New Reading Public
The invention of printing press gave birth to a new and ever growing readership. Printing reduced the cost of books since multiple copies could be produced effciently and quickly with lesser labour involved.
A new reading culture was observed since the common people began shifting to written literature from oral culture where knowledge was transferred to them orally. This was prevalent because before the invention of the printing press, reproducing written texts was expensive.
In Europe rates of literacy were very low. Publishers had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed work. They included popular ballads and folk tales for those who could not read but could at least listen to them being read out in gatherings. They were profusely illustrated with pictures. Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. Gradually, the hearing public and reading public became intermingled.
Religious Debates and the Fear of Print:
Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and discussion. People who disagreed with authorities transmitted their ideas through print. Through this, they could persuade people and even mobilise them.
Some people like religious authorities and monarchs, as well as many writers and artists, were apprehensive of the effects created by printed books and materials upon people’s minds. Irregulated publishing could cause rebellious and irreligious thoughts to spread. This would destroy the authority of good literature. This resulted in widespread criticism of the new printed literature that had begun to circulate.
In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote ninety five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. He challenged the Church to debate his ideas. Quick printing and reproducing helped develop his ideas into a revolution which led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold 5,000 copies within a few weeks. Luther thanked printing technology when he said that, ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.’
Print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the Reformation.
Print and Dissent:
Print and popular religious literature stimulated individual and distinct interpretations of faith even among less educated or informed people such as the worker classes. Menocchio, an Italian worker, reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church. Menocchio was ultimately executed to repress heretical ideas. This led to the Roman Church imposing repressive control over publishers and booksellers and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
The Reading Mania
Literacy rates went up in Europe in the 17th and 18th Century. Churches set up schools in villages making peasants and artisans literate.
Literacy was as high as 60-80% by the end of the 18th century in parts of Europe. With the spread of education, there was a virtual reading mania. Readership was growing unprecedented.
New forms of popular literature began targeting new audiences. Pedlars who carried and sold little books were employed. Almanacs or ritual calendars, ballads and folk tales were printed and sold. Romances and histories (stories of the past) were also printed.
Important:
In England, petty pedlars known as chapmen, carried and sold penny chapbooks for the poor. “Biliotheque Bleue”, which were low-priced small books printed on poor quality paper, bound in cheap blue covers were sold in France.
The periodical press combined information about current affairs with entertainment from the early 18th century.
Newspapers and journals carried information about wars, trade and news of developments. Ideas of scientists and philosophers could be made more accessible to the common people. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were published along with maps and scientific diagrams. This helped them influence a lot of readers with scientific tempers. Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau and their ideas about science, reason and rationality were widely printed and read. Books were seen as a means of spreading progress and enlightenment.
Example 2.
Why did some people in eighteenth century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism?
Answer:
People believed that books could change the world because they gave birth to modern and liberal ideas of freedom, liberty and equality. They could bring a revolution, liberate society from despotism and tyranny and could cause people with reason and intellect to rule. They believed that those who read books constantly would lead a revolution, spread these ideas far and across which would change the face of the world.
Frequently Asked
Louise Sebastian Mercier, of France, declared: ‘The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.”
Mercier’s heroes were generally transformed by acts of reading. They devoured books and became enlightened in the process.
It was his conviction and belief in the power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism, that made Mercier proclaim, ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’
Print Culture and the French Revolution
Example 3.
Why do some historians think that print culture created the basis for the French Revolution?
Answer:
Many historians have argued that print culture created the conditions within which French Revolution occurred.
Three types of arguments put forward are:
1. Print popularised the ideas of the enlightenment thinkers which provided a commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism. They argued for the rule of reason against established ideals and customs. They wrote discourses eroding the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition. The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau transformed the perception of their readers. They made them questioning, critical and rational.
2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All values, norms and institutions were re-evaluated by peopte with developed power of reason. New ideas of social revolution came into being.
3. By the 1780s, literature that mocked the royalty promoted questions about the existing social order. Monarchy was shown absorbed only in sensual pleasures while the common people suffered immense hardships in cartoons and caricatures. This literature circulated underground and led to the growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy.
4. However, people did not read just this kind of literature, they were exposed to monarchical and Church propaganda also. They were not just blindly influenced, instead they interpreted it. They accepted some ideas and rejected others.
Print just opened up the possibility of thinking differently instead of moulding it in a certain way.
The Nineteenth Century
By the nineteenth century, a new set of readers emerged among children, women and workers.
Primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century which incentivised the production of school textbooks. A children’s press was set up in France in 1857. It published new works, fairy tales and folktales. The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants. Texts and stories considered unsuitable for children were not included in the published version of their stories. Accordingly, rural folk tales acquired a new form.
Important:
Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women along with manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping. Numerous women novelists like Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot were writing at that time. Their writings defined women as a person with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.
Lending libraries which were established in the 17th century, became instruments for educating white- collar workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people in England. Self-educated working class people wrote for themselves. After work, workers took out time for self-improvement and self-expression. They wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.
Further Innovations:
By the late eighteenth century, the press came to be made out of metal. Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-driven cylindrical press by the mid-19th century. It was useful for printing newspapers. The offset press was developed which could print up to six colours at a time in the late 19th century. Electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations in the 20th century.
A series of other developments that followed are:
- Methods of feeding paper improved. The quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.
- Several individual mechanical improvements transformed the appearance of printed texts.
- Nineteenth-century periodicals serialised important novels, which gave birth to a particular way of writing novels.
- In England, a cheap series called the Shilling Series was introduced. It contained popular classics. Book jacket and dust covers were also invented in the 20th century.
- Publishers feared a decline in book purchases due to the Great Depression of the 1930s. They brought out cheap paperback editions for sustenance.
India And The World of Print
India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and various vernacular languages. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.
Pages were illustrated and pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation. Manuscripts continued to be produced till the late nineteenth century.
They were however fragile and expensive. They were written in different styles and not used widely for everyday use. The students of pre-colonial Bengal’s village primary schools only learnt to write. Teachers dictated portions of texts from memory and students wrote them down. Hence, many literates had never read a book themselves.
Print Comes to India
1. The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-sixteenth century. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and produced about 50 books in the Konkani and in Kanara languages by 1674. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin. They printed the first Malayalam book in 1713. By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts.
2. Despite the English East India Company beginning to import presses from the late seventeenth century, use of the English language did not grow.
Important:
From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette. Thus, a private English enterprise, independent from colonial influence, began English printing in India.
Hickey published a lot of advertisements also related to import and sale of slaves. He also published gossips about
Company’s senior officials in India. He was persecuted by the then Governor General, Warren Hastings.
Hastings encouraged the publication of officially sanctioned newspapers to counter the flow of information that damaged the image of the colonial government.
Indians began publishing Indian newspapers by the end of the 18th century. There were various magazines published by Indians spreading the message of nationalism and publishing other news in general, for example, the weekly Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was very close to Rammohun Roy.
Religious Reform and Public Debates
There were intense debates around religious issues from the 19th century. Different groups confronted the offered interpretations of the beliefs of different religions. Some criticised the established customs and practices, arguing for reforms, others countered the arguments of reformers. These debates were carried out in public and in print.
Printed tracts and newspapers also shaped the nature of the debate. The discussion involved participation from the wider public. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.
Intense controversies were fought between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry.
Tracts and newspapers circulated these arguments using everyday spoken language of ordinary people.
1. Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821. The Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to counter them.
2. From 1822, two Persian newspapers- Jam- i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar were published. A Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, made its appearance.
3. In north India, the ulama feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion, change the Muslim personal laws and that would lead to collapse of Muslim dynasties. They used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts to counter these arguments.
4. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives, and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines.
5. Muslim sects and seminaries appeared with a different interpretations of faith to enlarge its following and countering the influence of its opponents. Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in public.
6. Print encouraged the reading of religious texts among Hindus, usually in the vernacular languages.
7. The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out from Calcutta in 1810.
8. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernaculars. They were portable and light. They could be read out in front of gatherings in villages.
9. Religious texts reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging discussions, debates and controversies within and among different religions. Print stimulated the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities. It connected communities and people across India. Newspapers helped in creation of pan-Indian identities by conveying news from one place to another.
New Forms of Publication
Printing created an appetite for new kinds of writing.
1. Fascinated by life accounts of the authors, they wanted to see their own lives, experiences, emotions and relationships reflected in what they read.
2. A literary firm in Europe, the novel, catered to this need. It acquired Indian forms and styles. It
described diversity in the lifestyles of Indians vividly.
3. Lyrics, short stories, essays about social and political matters were read widely as well. They reinforced the new emphasis on human lives and intimate feelings, political and social values which affected human life.
4. By the end of the nineteenth century, Visual images began to be reproduced in multiple copies. Raja Ravi Varma and other painters produced images for mass circulation.
5. Poor wood engravers who made woodblocks were employed by print shops. Cheap Prints and patterns became affordable for the poor as well. They moulded popular ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics, and society and culture.
6. By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons commenting on social and political issues were being published in journals and newspapers.
7. They also mocked fascination, educated Indians had with Western tastes and clothes. Some expressed the fear of social change. They ridiculed nationalists as well as imperial rule.
Women and Print
Example 4.
What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to Women?
Answer:
Due to the print technology lives and feelings of women began to be covered vividly by journals and prints. Middle class women began reading in large numbers. Liberal husbands and fathers educated womenfolk at home. Women were also sent to women’s schools which were later set up in the cities and towns. Journals carried articles on why women should be educated along with a syllabus and attached suitable reading material for home-based schooling.
Conservative Hindus however believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances. Some rebel women however, defied such prohibition. One of them was Rashsundari Debi who learnt to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later, she wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban, which was published in 1876. It became the first full- length autobiography to be published in the Bengali language.
In East Bengal, there was also a popular interest in reading the accounts of lives of women in their words. After the 1860s, few Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the ill- experiences of women at the hands of patriarchal society. During 1880-90s, in present-day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.
Hindi printing began seriously only from the 1870s. Later, one significant segment of it was devoted to the education of women. Journals discussing issues like women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement written and edited by women, became extremely popular. Few offered household and fashion lessons to women. Few were devoted to bringing entertainment through short stories and serialised novels.
In Punjab, folk literature was widely printed from the early twentieth century. Ram Chaddha published Istri Dharm Vichar as a didactic discourse to teach women how to be obedient wives.
The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar message. They were written in forms of dialogues revealing characteristics of good women. In Bengal, the Battala was devoted to the printing of popular books. Cheap editions of religious tracts and scriptures, obscene and scandalous literature texts were available here.
Pedlars took the Battala publications to homes. Women could read them during their leisure time.
These books were profusely illustrated with woodcuts and coloured lithographs by the 19th century.
Print and the Poor People:
Very cheap small books were sold at crossroads and markets in Madras, allowing poor people travelling to markets to buy them. Public libraries, located in towns and prosperous villages, were set up in the early 20th Century, to expand the access to books. Patrons set up these to acquire prestige.
Issues of caste discrimination was the subject of discussion in many printed tracts and essays. Jyotiba Phule, wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871).
In the twentieth century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, wrote popular discourses on caste. Local protest movements and sects criticised ancient scriptures through journals.
Example 5.
What were the effects of the spread of print culture for poor people in nineteenth century India?
Answer:
The factory workers lacked the education to write much about their experiences. Due to the spread of print culture, Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation.
Another Kanpur millworker under the name of Sudarshan Chakra wrote poems between 1935 and 1955, which were published as a collection called Sacchi Kavitayan.
By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton mill workers just like Bombay workers, set up libraries to educate themselves, sponsored by social reformers who tried to bring, literacy, to propagate the message of nationalism and to curb their bad habits.
Print And Censorship
Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was more concerned about Englishmen in India who were critical of Company misrule. Most of their efforts at censorship were directed towards controlling printed matter published by them. They were worried that these criticisms could be used by officers who didn’t approve of them in attacking their trade monopoly.
Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to control press freedom by the 1820s. Company encouraged the publication of newspapers that would celebrate British rule. In 1835, upon insistence from the editors of English and vernacular newspapers, Governor-General Bentinck decided to revise press laws. Thomas Macaulay formulated new rules bringing back the lost freedom.
The relaxed attitude to freedom of the press changed after the 1857 revolt. English officers demanded restrictions on the ‘native’ press with rising nationalism in vernacular newspapers. The Vernacular Press Act (based on Irish Press Laws) was thus passed in 1878. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. The British government tracked the reports published in vernacular newspapers regularly seizing and confiscating the printing machinery upon repeated misactions. Despite the repression, nationalist newspapers rose, getting braver by the day, reporting on colonial misrule and encouraging nationalist activities. Attempts to throttle nationalist criticism provoked militant protest which led to another cycle of persecution and protests.
Frequently Asked
Bal Gangadhar Titak was imprisoned in 1908 because he wrote about the deportations of Punjab revolutionaries in 1907, in his newspaper Kesari.
Example 6.
Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.
Answer:
Print culture brought a new vigor in the nationalist revolution among Indians. Messages and ideas began to be spread easily through articles in newspapers, journals and pamphlets. The unjust treatment meted out by English officials was criticised bitterly in the newspapers. Their acts of violence were condemned and a pan-India support was created through print media.
People from various provinces and corners in the country would come out in support of unknown freedom activists and leaders if a report containing the persecution was published.
Nationalism grew in the country despite the restrictions and the suppression by the British Government. The power of the printed word was seen as an obstruction in the way of governments and hence they sought to regulate and suppress print. The colonial government kept continuous track of all books and newspapers published in India and passed numerous laws to control the press.
However, thousands of nationalists still engaged in writing harsh attacks on the despotic rule of British and encouraged people to come together as a nation. Multiple acts and laws like the Defence of India
Act were passed, allowing censoring of reports of war-related topics. All reports about the Quit India Movement came under its purview. In August 1942, about 90 newspapers were suppressed.
→ Porous: Any substance that allows air or water to pass through.
→ Calligraphy: The art of beautiful and stylised writing.
→ Imperial state: A state that engages in imperialism- by controlling weak but resourceful countries.
→ Courtesan: Ladies who served the courts and the kings.
→ Scribes: Professional copyist.
→ Vellum: A parchment made from the skin of animals.
→ Manuscripts: A book or text written by hand rather than typing.
→ Ballad: A historical account or folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited.
→ Protestant Reformation: A sixteenth-century movement to reform the Catholic Church dominated by Rome. Martin Luther was one of the main Protestant reformers.
→ Heretical: Those ideas and beliefs which do not follow the accepted teachings of the Church.
→ Almanac: An annual publication which gave astronomical data, about movements of the sun and moon, timing of full tides and eclipses.
→ Chapman books: Pocket size books.
→ Caricatures: Rendered images which show exaggeration by means of ludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics.
→ White: Collar workers- who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work.
→ Shilling Series: Cheap book series popular in England.
→ Vernacular: Regional.
→ Kitagawa Utamaro: was a Japanese artist and highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings.
→ Marco Polo: Italian explorer
→ Johann Gutenberg: He was a German goldsmith, inventor, printer, and publisher. He introduced the printing revolution with his mechanical movable-type printing press in Europe.
→ Martin Luther: He was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk and a seminal figure in the Reformation.
→ Erasmus: He was a Latin scholar and a Catholic reformer, who criticised the excesses of Catholicism.
→ Thomas Paine: He was an English-born American political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and a revolutionary.
→ Voltaire: He was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit, his criticism of Christianity.
→ Jean Jacques Rousseau: He was a Swiss-born philosopher, writer, and political theorist. He wrote a lot about French Revolution and the Romantic generation.
→ Jane Austen: She was an English novelist. She was known for novels which interpret, critique and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.
→ Bronte sisters: Charlotte and Emily Bronte were sisters and writers whose novels have become classics.
→ George Eliot: Mary Ann Evans known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator from the Victorian Era.
→ Richard. M. Hoe: He was an American inventor who designed a rotary printing press. He also designed the “Hoe web perfecting press” in 1871. It revolutionized newspaper publishing.
→ Warren Hastings: First Governor General of Bengal presidency in British India.
→ William Bentinck: Lord William Bentick was the first governor general of British-occupied India.
→ James Augustus Hickey: James Augustus Hickey was an Irishman who launched the first printed newspaper in India, Hickey’s Bengal Gazette.
→ Ram Mohan Roy: He founded the Brahmo Sabha and worked diligently for the religious and socio-cultural reformation of the country. He was given the title of Raja by Akbar II, the Mughal emperor.
→ Raja Ravi Varma: Indian Painter
→ Tarabai Shinde: She was a feminist activist who wrote about social evils like patriarchy and caste in 19th century India. She wrote the Stripurush Tulana (“A Comparison Between Women and Men”), published in Marathi in 1882.
→ Pandita Ramabai: Pandita Ramabai Sarasvati was a women’s right and education activist, indulged in education and emancipation of women in India and a social reformer.
→ B.R. Ambedkar: He was an Indian jurist, economist, politician and social reformer and the father of the Indian Constitution.
→ E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker: He was also called Periyar. He was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement.
→ Thomas Macaulay: He was a Britain historian and Whig politician. He played a major role in the introduction of English and western concepts to education in India, and published his argument on the subject in the “Macaulay’s Minute” in 1835.
→ Lakshminath Bezbaruah: He was a pioneering author of Assamese literature. He wrote Burhi Aair Sadhu (Grandma’s Tales) and other notable works. He penned the popular song of Assam, ‘O Mor Apunar Desh’ (O’ my beloved land).
→ Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain: She was a noted educationist and literary figure, who strongly condemned men for withholding education from women.
→ To what corner of the world do they not fly, these swarms of new books? – Erasmus, a Latin scholar and Catholic reformer.
→ Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one. – Martin Luther King
→ The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.’ – Louise-Sebastien Mercier
→ Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’ – Louise-Sebastien Mercier
→ The opponents of female education say that women will become unruly … Fie! They call themselves Muslims and yet go against the basic tenet of Islam which gives Women an equal right to education -Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain,
→ Liberty of speech … liberty of the press …freedom of association. The Government of India is now seeking to crush the three powerful vehicles of expressing and cultivating public opinion. The fight for Swaraj, for Khilafat …means a fight for this threatened freedom. -Mahatma Gandhi
→ 594 AD: China begins printing books by rubbing paper.
→ 768-770 AD: China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around.
→ 868 AD: Diamond Sutra is printed
→ 1295: Marco Polo returns to Italy.
→ 1448: Gutenberg perfects the system of printing press.
→ 1517: Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses
→ 1579: First Tamil book is printed by Jesuit priests at Cochin
→ 1588: Roman Church begins to maintain Index of Prohibited Books.
→ 1713: First Malayalam book was printed by Jesuit Priests
→ 1780: James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette.
→ 1810: The Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas published in Calcutta
→ 1821: Sambad Kaumudi is published
→ 1822: Jam-i-jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar is published
→ 1835: Governor-General Bentinck agrees to revise press laws.
→ 1857: Children’s press is set up in France.
→ 1867: Deoband Seminary is founded
→ 1871: Gulamgiri is published.
→ 1876: Amar Jiban is published
→ 1878: Vernacular Press Act is passed
→ 1926: Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, condemned men for withholding education from women in the name of religion as she addressed the Bengal Women’s Education Conference.
→ 1938: Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal is printed by Kashibaba