Print culture and the
Modern world Part :2
The Nineteenth Century
The nineteenth century saw vast leaps in mass
literacy in Europe, bringing in large numbers of
new readers among children,women and
workers.
Q. What did the spread of Print Culture in the
nineteenth century Europe mean to
(c) Workers
(b) Women
(a) Children
Children
● As primary education became compulsory from the late
nineteenth century. Children became main readers.
Production of school textbooks became critical for the
publishing industry.
● A children press, devoted to literature for children only,
was set up in France in 1857.
● The Grimm brothers in Germany complied traditional
folk tales gathered from peasants.
● Things considered unsuitable for children were edited in
these books.
Women
Lives and feelings of women began to be written.
Women became important readers as well as
[Link] magazine especially meant for women
was published.
(ii) Some of the best known novelists were women:
Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot.
Novels began exploring the world of women,
emotions and problems. their
(iii) Writings defined a new type of woman-a person
with will, determination and the power to think.
Workers:
(i) Lending libraries were started in the seventeenth century.
In the nineteenth century their numbers grew in England.
They were used by white collar workers, artisans and lower
middle-class people.
(ii) As working hours shortened from mid-nineteenth century,
print offered opportunities to workers for self-improvement
and self-expression.
(iii) Print offered opportunities for some self-educating
working class people to write.
How did print culture impact women lives?
Give names of some best known women
novelists.
Frontispiece of Penny Magazine
Penny Magazine was published
between 1832 and 1835 in
England by the Society for the
Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
It was aimed primarily at the
working class.
They were especially
meant for women as were
manuals teaching proper
behaviour and housekeeping
Further Innovations
Press came to be made out of
metal
By the mid-nineteenth century,
Richard M. Hoe of New York
had perfected the power-driven
cylindrical press.
Richard M. Hoe ‘s power-driven cylindrical press.
His cylindrical press was much faster than the old
printing press
This was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour.
This press was particularly useful for printing
newspapers.
In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was
developed which could print up to six colours at a
time
Offset printing
From the beginning of the 20th century, electrically
operated press started, which was very fast.
A series of many other improvements such as,
methods of feeding paper, Quality of the
plates,automatic paper reels and and photoelectric
controls of the colour register were introduced.
These improvements further transformed the
appearance of the printed texts.
Q. Give some innovations of the 19th and 20th
centuries which gave an impetus to the printing
industry.
Q, Mention any three innovations which improved
the printing Technology after the 17th century.
Shilling series : They were cheap editions of books
developed in England in the 1920s.
Periodical serialised important novels.
Dust covers or bookjackets invented.
How did publishers sustain market during the Great
Depression?
Ans. Publishers brought out cheap
paperback editions to sustain market
during the Great Depression.
Q. Explain the strategies that were adopted by
publishers and printers to sell their products in
the 19th and 20th century England. (CBSE 2016)
● 18 th century pedlars…..
● Biliothique bleue in France…..
● Periodicals serialised novels…
● Dust covers or book jackets invented….
● Cheap Shilling series….
● Cheap paper back editions….
India and the World of Print
Manuscripts before the age of print
Let us see when printing began in India and how
ideas and information were written before the age of
print.
Palm leaf hand written manuscript
Diwan of Hafiz (1824)
Manuscript on handmade paper with illustrations
Indian manuscripts were copied and illustrated on
palm leaves sewn together or on hand made paper.
(ii) Pages were beautifully illustrated.
(iii) They were highly expensive and fragile; had to
be handled carefully.
(iv) They were either pressed between wooden
covers or sewn together.
Poll question.
Give the languages in which manuscripts were
written in India before the age of print.
A, Sanskrit
B, Arabic
C, Persian
D, in various vernacular languages
E, All the above
Limitations of handwritten manuscripts in India
They were manuscripts copied on palm leaves or
on handmade paper
● They are highly expensive and fragile.
● They had to be handled carefully.
● They could not be read easily as the script
was written in different styles.
Even though pre-colonial Bengal had developed an
extensive network of village primary schools,
students very often did not read texts.
They only learnt to write
Teachers dictated portions of
texts from memory and
students wrote them down.
Many indian became literate without ever actually
reading any kinds of texts
Give reasons
Print comes to India
Who brought the first printing press to India
The first printing press was brought to India (Goa) by
the Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16 th century.
● Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed several books.
By 1674 about 50 books had been printed in Konkani
and Kanara languages.
● The Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579
at Cochin.
● In 1713 the first book in Malayalam was printed.
● By 1710, Dutch missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts.
1579 : First book in Tamil
1674 : 50 books printed in Konkani
1710 : 32 Tamil texts by Dutch missionaries
1713 : First book in Malayalam
Q,How did the printing technique begin in India?
Explain.
Q,Explain the role of the missionaries in the growth
of press in India.
The English language press did not grow in
India till quite late even though the English
East India Company began to import presses
from the late seventeenth century.
The English language press developed only in the late
18th century
The first to appear was the 'Bengal Gazette', a weekly in
1780.
James Augustus Hickey began to edit this. It was
however a private English enterprise. He was proud
of its independence from colonial influences.
The magazine published a lot of advertisements
( import and sale of slaves) and gossip about
Company's senior officials in India.
This weekly was closed after sometime and again
started by Gangadhar Bhattacharya.
Hickey was persecuted because his publications
enraged the then Governor General Warren
Hastings.
Warren Hastings encouraged the publication of
officially sanctioned newspapers to counter the flow
of information that damaged the image of the
colonial government.
By the close of the 18th century, number of journals
and newspapers appeared in print. The Indians too
began to publish Indian newspapers.
Poll question
The oldest newspaper still in circulation in india
A,Mumbai samachar
B, The Bengal gazette
C, The indian express
D,The hindu
E,The times of india
A,Mumbai samachar - 1822
B, The Bengal gazette - 1780
C, The indian express - 1924
D,The hindu - 1878
E,The times of india - 1838
Religious reforms and public debate
Variety of opinions: From early 19th century there
were serious debates on religious, social and
economic issues. Reformers criticised existing
practices and campaigned for reforms. Yet others did
not agree the arguments of reformers.
(ii) Shaping opinion: Printed materials and
newspapers spread new ideas and the nature of the
debate. Wider section of people could now
participate in debates. Through these discussions
and debates emerged new opinions.
(iii) Social reforms: This was a period of differences
between reformers and Hindu orthodoxy on social
and religious issues like sati, widow remarriage,
infanticide, polygamy etc.
The print reached a wider audience as the ideas
were printed in the spoken language of the common
people
In Bengal, newspapers circulated a variety of ideas
e.g., Raja Rammohan Roy's 'Sambad Kaumudi';in
1821 and 'Samachar Chandrika' commissioned by
Hindu orthodoxy to counter Roy's opinions.
From 1822 two Persian newspapers were published
Jami-i-jahan Nama Shamsul Akbar
In the same year, a Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay
Samachar, made its appearance.
Discussions finally resulted in abolition of certain evil
practices like sati, and enabled widow remarriage,
education of women. English education was also
started.
How did print introduce debate and discussion
In what way did print affect the reformers explain
with examples
In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about
the collapse of Muslim dynasties.
Ulama – Legal scholars of Islam and the sharia
( a body of Islamic law)
They feared, the colonial rulers would encourage
conversion and change the Muslim personal laws.
To counter this, they published Urdu translations of
holy books and printed religious materials.
They used cheap
lythographic presses
The Deoband seminary*, founded in 1867, published
thousands of 'fatwas' telling Muslims readers how to
live their everyday lives.
Fatwa – A legal pronouncement on Islamic
law usually given by a mufti (legal scholar) to
clarify issues on which the law is uncertain
(iii) The 19th century, many Muslim sects and
seminaries appeared. Each had a different
interpretation of faith. Each tried to increase its
following. Each countered the influence of its
opponents. The Urdu print helped them conduct
these battles in public.
Q,Why did the Muslim ulama in India want to
introduce religious reforms in Islam? What were the
efgorts by them?
The first printed edition of Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a
16th century book came out from Calcutta in 1810.
(ii) From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow
and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published
many religious texts in local languages.
(iii) In printed and portable form, these texts could be read
easily by the people at any place or time. These books
could be read out to large groups of illiterate men and
women.
Explain how print encouraged the reading of
religious texts among Hindu religion
