NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 7 Print Culture and Modern World
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Social History Chapter 7 Print Culture and the Modern World
Q.1. Give reasons for the following :
(a) Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295. [CBSE 2013]
(b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it.
(c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited books from the mid-sixteenth century.
(d) Gandhi said the fight for ‘Swaraj is a fight for the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association.
Ans. (a) (i) Paper reached Europe through the Silk Route in the 11th century.
(iii) Italy began producing with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.
(b)
- In 1517 Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
- A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg.
- It challenged the Church to debate his ideas.
- Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely.
- This 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 and a second edition appeared within three months. All this became possible due to printing technology. Deeply grateful to print, Luther said, “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.”
- Several scholars, in fact, think that the print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the Reformation.
(c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited Books from the mid-sixteenth century due to the following reasons :
- The print and popular religious literature encouraged many distinctive individual interpretations of faith even among little-educated working people. For example, Manocchio, a miller in Italy, after reading some books available in his locality, reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church. Various types of questions were raised against the faith and the Church. Manocchio was hauled up twice and ultimately executed.
- As the Roman Catholic Church was troubled by such writings, it imposed severe controls over publishers and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
(d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association due to the following reasons :
- After the revolt of 1857, as the vernacular press became assertively nationalist, the colonial government tried to control it. Thus in 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. Whenever there was a seditious report, the newspaper was warned and if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery confiscated.
- When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his Kesari. This led to his imprisonment in 1908. There were widespread protests all over 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.
- Similarly during the Khilafat and Non-Cooperation Movement, the Government of India was trying to crush the three powerful vehicles of expressing (Liberty of speech, liberty of press, and freedom of association) and cultivating public opinion. Thus the fight for Swaraj was a fight for this freedom than anything else.
Q.2. Write short notes to show that you know about:
(a) The Gutenberg Press.
(b) The Erasmus’s idea of the printed book.
(c) The Vernacular Press Act. [CBSE Sept. 2011, 2012]
Ans. (a) Johann Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor, credited with the inventing of the movable type printing in Europe.Gutenberg was the son of a merchant, and his childhood was spent on a large agricultural estate. From his childhood, he had seen wine and olive presses. By and by, he learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets. (Trinket-A small item of jewellery that is cheap or of low quality). Using this knowledge, Gutenberg adapted the existing technology to design his innovation. The olive press became the base model for the printing press and moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet. By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. In 1455, Gutenberg published his 42-lines Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 copies were printed most on paper and some on vellum.
(b) Erasmus’s idea of the printed book: Erasmus, a Latin scholar, and a Catholic reformer, who criticized the excesses of Catholicism, but kept his distance from, Luther, expressed deep anxiety about printing. He wrote in Adages (1508) :
‘To what corner of the world do they not fly, these swarms of new books? It may be that one here and there contributes something worth knowing, but the very multitude of them is hurtful to scholarship because it creates a glut and even in good things, satiety is most harmful… [printers] fill the world with books, not just trifling things (such as I write, perhaps), but stupid, ignorant, slanderous, scandalous, raving, irreligious and seditious books and the number of them is such that even the valuable publications lose their value.’
(c) The Vernacular Press Act: The revolt of 1857 forced the government to curb the freedom of the press. After the revolt, enraged Englishmen demanded a clampdown on the ‘native’ press. As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, the colonial government began debating measures of strict control.
In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, on the model of Irish Press Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. The government started keeping regular track of the vernacular newspapers published in different provinces. When a report was judged as seditious, the newspapers were given a warning and if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized, and the printing machinery could be confiscated.
Q.3. What did the spread of print culture in the nineteenth century India mean to :
(a) Women
(b) The poor
(c) Reformers
Ans. (a)Women :
(i) Women as readers : Lives and feelings of women began to be written in intense ways. So women became important as readers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.
(ii) Women as writers : Many women novelists like Jane Austin, Bronte Sisters, George Eliot wrote about women. Novels and other journals began exploring the world of women – their emotions, identities, their experiences and problems. The writings of woman became important in defining a new type of woman – a person with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.
(iii) Novels and books on women : As the readership of women was increasing publishers started producing novels and journals for women. Many journals began carrying writings by women, and explained why women should be educated.
(b) Poor workers and the print : Workers in factories were too overworked, and thus, lacked the education to write about their expectations and experiences. But Keshibaba, a Kanpur mill worker wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 to depict the links between caste and class exploitation. The poems of another Kanpur mill worker, who wrote under the name of Sudarshan Chakra between 1935 and 1955, were brought together, and published in a collection called Sacchi Kavitayain. By the 1930s, Bangaluru cotton mill workers set up libraries to educate themselves. By doing so, they were following the example of Bombay (Mumbai) workers. These libraries were sponsored by social reformers who tried to restrict excessive drinking among the poor, to bring literacy and, sometimes, to propagate the message of nationalism.
(c) Reformers: From the early nineteenth century there were intense debates around religious issues. Different groups differed on interpretations of the beliefs of different religions. Criticism and campaigns were going on. The coming of print made a lot of difference as mentioned below:
- The coming of print culture meant that the reformers could now spread their ideas more quickly among the masses.
- The debates on existing practices were printed in newspapers and journals.
- A large number of people could now participate in debates relating to religious and social reforms.
- New ideas emerged through these debates about widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry.
- Different ideas were printed in the everyday spoken language of ordinary people. For example, Raja Rammohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 to spread his ideas.
- The reformers used the print culture to reach the masses.
- In addition to this, social reformers used the print culture to restrict excessive drinking among workers to spread literacy.
- Among Muslims, the Ulama used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts. The meanings of Islamic doctrines were explained.
- Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in the vernacular languages. The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out from Calcutta in 1810.
- By the mid-nineteenth century, cheap lithographic editions flooded north Indian markets. From the 1880s the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernaculars. These texts reached a large number of people encouraging debates, discussions on various issues.
Q.4. Write about the different innovations in printing technology during the 19th century? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. (i) By the mid-nineteenth century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-driven cylindrical press. This was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour. This press was particularly useful for printing newspapers.
(ii) In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six colours at a time.
(iii) From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations.
Q.5. Why did some people in the eighteenth century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Or
Assess the impact of print revolution on the European society. [CBSE 2013]
Ans. (i) Spreading of new ideas: After the coming of the print culture, the ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common people. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published.
(ii) Scientific discoveries: Maps and more accurate scientific diagrams were widely printed. When scientists like Issac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could influence a much wider circle of scientifically-minded readers.
(iii) Writings of scholars: The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed, and could gain popularity. Thus, their ideas about science, reasoning and rationality found their way into popular literature.
(iv) Books as a medium of progress: By the mid-18th century, books became a medium of spreading progress and enlightenment which could change society and the world. It was also believed that the books could literate society from despotism and tyranny.
(v) Ideas of enlightened thinkers: The print popularised the ideas of the enlightened thinkers like that of Martin Luther who attacked the authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state, e.g., Voltaire and Rousseau.
(vi) A new culture of dialogue and debate: The print created a new culture of dialogue and debate and the public, became aware of reasoning and recognized the need to question the existing ideas and beliefs.
Q.6. Why did some people fear the effect of easily available printed books? Choose one example from Europe and one from India. [CBSE Sept. 2011]
Or
Explain the role played by print in bringing about a division in the Roman Catholic Church. [CBSE Sept. 2011]
Or
Explain the role played by print in the spreading of Protestant Reformation. [CBSE 2012, 2013]
Ans. Not everyone welcomed the printed books and those, who did, also had fear about them. Many were of the opinion that printed words and the wider circulation of books, would have a negative impact on people’s minds. They feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read, then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might gain importance. There was also fear in the minds of scholars that the authority of ‘valuable’ literature would be destroyed. The new print was criticized by religious authorities, monarchs, as well as by writers and artists.
Let us consider the implication of this in one sphere of life in early modern Europe, i.e., religion. Martin Luther was a German monk, priest, professor, and Church reformer. In 1517, he wrote Ninety Five Theses and openly criticised many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. A printed copy of this was pasted on a Church door in Wittenberg. It challenged the Church to debate his ideas. Luther’s writings were immediately copied in vast numbers and read widely. This led to a division within the Church and led to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Manx; conservative FUndus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims believed that educated women could get corrupted by reading Urdu romances. There were many instances of women defying this prohibition.
Q.7. What were the effects of the spread of print culture for the poor people in the nineteenth century India ?
Ans. Poor workers and the print : Workers in factories were too overworked, and thus, lacked the education to write about their expectations and experiences. But Keshibaba, a Kanpur mill worker wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 to depict the links between caste and class exploitation. The poems of another Kanpur mill worker, who wrote under the name of Sudarshan Chakra between 1935 and 1955, were brought together, and published in a collection called Sacchi Kavitayain. By the 1930s, Bangaluru cotton mill workers set up libraries to educate themselves. By doing so, they were following the example of Bombay (Mumbai) workers. These libraries were sponsored by social reformers who tried to restrict excessive drinking among the poor, to bring literacy and, sometimes, to propagate the message of nationalism.
Q.8. Explain how the print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Ans. (i) New ideas and debates : There were many who criticised the existing practices and campaigned for reforms, while others countered the arguments of the reformers. These debates were carried out openly in public and in print. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they also shaped the nature of the debate. All this assisted the growth of nationalism.
(ii) Connecting various communities : Print did not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also connected communities and people living in different parts of India. Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.
(iii) Print and newspaper : Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in all parts of India. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities. When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in Kesari.
(iv) Various novels on national history: Many novels written by Indian novelists like Bankim’s Anandamath created a sense of pan-Indian belonging. Munshi Premchand’s novel, Godan highlighted how Indian peasants were exploited by the colonial bureaucrats.
(v) Various images of Bharatmata : Printers like Raja Ravi Verma and Rabindranath Tagore produced images of Bharatmata which produced a sense of nationalism among Indians. The devotion to mother figure came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism.
