NCERT Class 10 · Chapter V
Print Culture and the Modern World
Comprehensive notes from the first printed books in East Asia to Gutenberg’s press, the print revolution in Europe, and the transformative role of print in colonial India — with UPSC-standard MCQs.
📜 East Asian Origins
🖨️ Gutenberg Press
✊ Print Revolution
🇮🇳 Print in India
⚖️ Censorship
📝 10 UPSC MCQs
📋 Table of Contents
- The First Printed Books — East Asia
- Print Comes to Europe & Gutenberg
- The Print Revolution and Its Impact
- The Reading Mania & French Revolution
- The Nineteenth Century
- India and the World of Print
- Religious Reform & New Publications
- Women, Poor People & Print
- Print and Censorship
- UPSC MCQs (10 Questions)
Intro Setting the Context
Fig. 1 – Book making before the age of print, from Akhlaq-i-Nasiri, 1595. This is a royal workshop in the sixteenth century, much before printing began in India. You can see the text being dictated, written and illustrated. The art of writing and illustrating by hand was important in the age before print.
It is difficult to imagine a world without printed matter — books, journals, newspapers, advertisements, theatre programmes, calendars, cinema posters. We take this world of print for granted and often forget that print itself has a history which has shaped our contemporary world.
This chapter traces the development of print from its beginnings in East Asia to its expansion in Europe and India, and examines how social lives and cultures changed with the coming of print.
01 The First Printed Books — East Asia
The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea — a system of hand printing.
China
| Technology | From AD 594, books in China were printed by rubbing paper (also invented in China) against the inked surface of woodblocks. Both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, so the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side. |
|---|---|
| Imperial State’s Role | For a very long time, the imperial state was the major producer of printed material. China had a huge bureaucratic system that recruited personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for these examinations were printed in vast numbers under imperial sponsorship. From the 16th century, the number of examination candidates went up, increasing the volume of print. |
| 17th century diversification | As urban culture bloomed, print was no longer only for scholar-officials. Merchants used print to collect trade information. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. New readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays. |
| Women and reading | Rich women began to read. Many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives. |
| Western influence | Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the late 19th century as Western powers established outposts in China. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture. From hand printing there was a gradual shift to mechanical printing. |
📖 New Word: Calligraphy — The art of beautiful and stylised writing. Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy through woodblock printing.
Japan
Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around AD 768–770. The oldest Chinese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money.
In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and abundant. In the late 18th century, in the flourishing urban circles at Edo (later Tokyo), illustrated collections of paintings depicted an elegant urban culture involving artists, courtesans, and teahouse gatherings.
📦 Box 1 — Kitagawa Utamaro & Ukiyo (UPSC Important)
Kitagawa Utamaro, born in Edo in 1753, was widely known for his contributions to an art form called ukiyo (‘pictures of the floating world’) — depiction of ordinary human experiences, especially urban ones.These prints travelled to contemporary US and Europe and influenced artists like Manet, Monet and Van Gogh.
Publishers like Tsutaya Juzaburo identified subjects and commissioned artists who drew the theme in outline. Then a skilled woodblock carver pasted the drawing on a woodblock and carved a printing block to reproduce the painter’s lines. In the process, the original drawing would be destroyed and only prints would survive.
Korea — Tripitaka Koreana & Jikji
Fig. 2b – Tripitaka Koreana. Belonging to the mid-13th century, these printing woodblocks are a Korean collection of Buddhist scriptures. They were engraved on about 80,000 woodblocks. They were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2007.
Fig. 4b – Jikji. 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. About 150 monks of India, China and Korea are mentioned. It was printed in the late 14th century. While the first volume is unavailable, the second is in the National Library of France. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2001.
02 Print Comes to Europe & Gutenberg’s Press
For centuries, silk and spices from China flowed into Europe through the silk route. In the eleventh century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the same route. Paper made possible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes. In 1295, Marco Polo returned to Italy after years of exploration in China, bringing the knowledge of woodblock printing. Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread across Europe.
| Luxury editions | Still handwritten on very expensive vellum (parchment made from the skin of animals), meant for aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries which scoffed at printed books as cheap vulgarities. |
|---|---|
| Common editions | Merchants and students in university towns bought the cheaper printed copies. |
| Problem with manuscripts | Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business. Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or read easily. Their circulation remained limited. |
| Early 15th century | Woodblocks widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with simple brief texts. |
2.1 Gutenberg and the Printing Press
🖨️ Johann Gutenberg — Key Facts (UPSC Critical)
Background: Son of a merchant, grew up on a large agricultural estate. From childhood he saw wine and olive presses. Subsequently learnt to polish stones, became a master goldsmith, and acquired expertise to create lead moulds for trinkets.Innovation: The olive press provided the model for the printing press; moulds were used for casting metal types for the letters of the alphabet.
By 1448: Gutenberg perfected the system.
First book printed: The Bible. About 180 copies were printed and it took 3 years to produce them (fast by the standards of the time).
Gutenberg Press capacity: Could print 250 sheets on one side per hour.
Moveable type machine: Gutenberg developed metal types for each of the 26 characters of the Roman alphabet and devised a way of moving them around to compose different words — the moveable type printing machine remained the basic print technology over the next 300 years.
New Words:
• Platen — In letterpress printing, a board pressed onto the back of the paper to get the impression from the type (originally wooden, later made of steel)
• Compositor — The person who composes the text for printing
• Galley — Metal frame in which types are laid and the text composed
The first printed books at first closely resembled written manuscripts in appearance and layout. Metal letters imitated ornamental handwritten styles. Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and illustrations were painted. In books printed for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank — each purchaser could choose the design and decide on the painting school for illustrations.
📊 Spread of Printing Presses — Key Numbers:
- Between 1450 and 1550: Printing presses set up in most countries of Europe. Printers from Germany travelled to other countries.
- Second half of the 15th century: 20 million copies of printed books flooded European markets.
- 16th century: Number went up to about 200 million copies.
- This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.
03 The Print Revolution and Its Impact
The print revolution was not just a new way of producing books; it 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.
3.1 A New Reading Public
| Before print | Reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral culture — they heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited, folk tales narrated. Knowledge was transferred orally. There was a hearing public. |
|---|---|
| After print | Books flooded the market, reaching ever-growing readership. Books could reach wider sections of people. A reading public came into being. |
| Challenge | Books could be read only by the literate, and literacy rates in most European countries were very low till the 20th century. So printers published popular ballads and folk tales, profusely illustrated with pictures — these were sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns. |
| Result | Oral culture entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. The line separating oral and reading cultures became blurred. The hearing public and reading public became intermingled. |
📖 New Words:
• Ballad — A historical account or folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited
• Taverns — Places where people gathered to drink alcohol, to be served food, and to meet friends and exchange news
• Ballad — A historical account or folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited
• Taverns — Places where people gathered to drink alcohol, to be served food, and to meet friends and exchange news
3.2 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. Even those who disagreed with established authorities could now print and circulate their ideas. Not everyone welcomed the printed book — many feared its effects.
✝️ Martin Luther & Protestant Reformation (UPSC Critical)
In 1517, religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. A printed copy 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.
Deeply grateful to print, Luther said: ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.’
New Word: Protestant Reformation — A 16th-century movement to reform the Catholic Church dominated by Rome. Several traditions of anti-Catholic Christianity developed out of the movement.
3.3 Print and Dissent
Print stimulated individual interpretations of faith even among little-educated working people.
📦 Menocchio — The Miller and the Church (UPSC Important)
In the 16th century, Menocchio, a miller in Italy, began reading available books. He reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church. When the Roman Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Menocchio was hauled up twice and ultimately executed.The Roman Church, troubled by such effects of popular readings, imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.
New Words:
• Inquisition — A former Roman Catholic court for identifying and punishing heretics
• Heretical — Beliefs which do not follow the accepted teachings of the Church; seen as a threat to the Church’s authority
• Satiety — The state of being fulfilled much beyond the point of satisfaction
• Seditious — Action, speech or writing that is seen as opposing the government
📄 Source A — Erasmus: Fear of the Book (UPSC Important)
Erasmus, a Latin scholar and Catholic reformer who criticised 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…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.’
04 The Reading Mania and Print & the French Revolution
Through the 17th and 18th centuries literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe. Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to peasants and artisans. By the end of the 18th century, in some parts of Europe, literacy rates were as high as 60 to 80 per cent. There was a virtual reading mania.
New Forms of Popular Literature
| England — Penny Chapbooks | Carried by petty pedlars known as chapmen, sold for a penny so even the poor could buy them. |
|---|---|
| France — Bibliothèque Bleue | Low-priced small books printed on poor quality paper, bound in cheap blue covers. Also romances printed on 4–6 pages, and more substantial ‘histories’ (stories about the past). |
| Periodical Press | Developed from the early 18th century, combining information about current affairs with entertainment. Newspapers and journals carried information about wars, trade, and news of developments in other places. |
| Science and Philosophy | Ideas of scientists and philosophers became more accessible. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published. Maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed. Isaac Newton published discoveries; writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were widely read — ideas about science, reason and rationality found their way into popular literature. |
📖 New Words:
• Denominations — Sub groups within a religion
• Almanac — An annual publication giving astronomical data, information about movements of the sun and moon, timing of full tides and eclipses
• Chapbook — Pocket-size books sold by travelling pedlars called chapmen; became popular from the 16th-century print revolution
• Denominations — Sub groups within a religion
• Almanac — An annual publication giving astronomical data, information about movements of the sun and moon, timing of full tides and eclipses
• Chapbook — Pocket-size books sold by travelling pedlars called chapmen; became popular from the 16th-century print revolution
📦 Box 2 — James Lackington, London publisher, 1791 (UPSC Important)
‘The sale of books in general has increased prodigiously within the last twenty years. The poorer sort of farmers and even the poor country people in general who before that period spent their winter evenings in relating stories of witches, ghosts, hobgoblins…now shorten the winter night by hearing their sons and daughters read them tales, romances, etc. If John goes to town with a load of hay, he is charged to be sure not to forget to bring home Peregrine Pickle’s Adventure…’
4.1 ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!’
By the mid-18th century, there was a common conviction that books were a 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.
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.’ He proclaimed: ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’
📖 New Word: Despotism — A system of governance in which absolute power is exercised by an individual, unregulated by legal and constitutional checks.
4.2 Print Culture and the French Revolution
Many historians have argued that print culture created the conditions within which the French Revolution occurred. Three types of arguments:
| Argument 1 | Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers — Voltaire, Rousseau etc. Their writings provided critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism; argued for the rule of reason; attacked sacred authority of the Church and despotic power of the state. Those who read these books saw the world through new eyes — questioning, critical and rational. |
|---|---|
| Argument 2 | Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All values, norms and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by a public aware of the power of reason, recognising the need to question existing ideas and beliefs. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into being. |
| Argument 3 | By the 1780s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their morality. Cartoons and caricatures suggested the monarchy was absorbed only in sensual pleasures while common people suffered immense hardships. This literature circulated underground and led to growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy. |
| Caution | Print helped spread ideas but did not directly shape minds. People read Voltaire and Rousseau but were also exposed to monarchical and Church propaganda. They accepted some ideas, rejected others, and interpreted things their own way. Print opened up the possibility of thinking differently — it did not directly cause the Revolution. |
05 The Nineteenth Century — Children, Women, Workers & Innovations
The 19th century saw vast leaps in mass literacy in Europe, bringing in large numbers of new readers among children, women and workers.
5.1 Children, Women and Workers
| Children | As primary education became compulsory from the late 19th century, children became an important category of readers. Production of school textbooks became critical for the publishing industry. A children’s press was set up in France in 1857. The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants, published in a collection in 1812. Anything considered unsuitable for children or vulgar to elites was excluded. Rural folk tales acquired a new form — print recorded old tales but also changed them. |
|---|---|
| Women | Women became important as readers AND writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping. Some of the best-known novelists were women: Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot. Their writings became important in defining a new type of woman: a person with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think. |
| Workers | Lending libraries in England became instruments for educating white-collar workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people. Self-educated working class people wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers. Thomas Wood, a Yorkshire mechanic, rented old newspapers and read them by firelight as he could not afford candles. Maxim Gorky’s My Childhood and My University provide glimpses of such struggles. |
📦 Box 3 — Workers’ Struggles to Read
Thomas Wood, a Yorkshire mechanic, narrated how he would rent old newspapers and read them by firelight in the evenings as he could not afford candles. Autobiographies of poor people narrated their struggles to read against grim obstacles: the 20th-century Russian revolutionary author Maxim Gorky’s My Childhood and My University provide glimpses of such struggles.
5.2 Further Innovations in Printing Technology
Late 18th century
Press came to be made out of metal.Mid-19th century
Richard M. Hoe of New York perfected the power-driven cylindrical press — capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour, particularly useful for printing newspapers.Late 19th century
Offset press developed — could print up to six colours at a time.Turn of 20th century
Electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations. Automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.19th century publishing
Periodicals serialised important novels — gave birth to a particular way of writing novels. In the 1920s in England, popular works sold in cheap series called the Shilling Series. The dust cover or book jacket is a 20th-century innovation. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, publishers brought out cheap paperback editions.
Fig. 13 – Advertisements at a railway station in England, a lithograph by Alfred Concanen, 1874. Printed advertisements and notices were plastered on street walls, railway platforms and public buildings — showing how print permeated everyday public life in the 19th century.
06 India and the World of Print
6.1 Manuscripts Before the Age of Print
India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts — in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, as well as in various vernacular languages. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper. Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated. They would be either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation. Manuscripts continued to be produced till well after the introduction of print, down to the late 19th century.
Fig. 16 – Pages from the Rigveda. Handwritten manuscripts continued to be produced in India till much after the coming of print. This manuscript was produced in the eighteenth century in the Malayalam script. Scripts were written in different styles, making manuscripts difficult to read in everyday life.
⚠️ Limitation of Manuscripts: Highly expensive and fragile. Script was written in different styles making them difficult to read. Even though pre-colonial Bengal had an extensive network of village primary schools, students often did not read texts — they only learnt to write. Teachers dictated portions of texts from memory and students wrote them down. Many thus became literate without ever actually reading any texts.
6.2 Print Comes to India
Mid-16th century
Printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed several tracts.By 1674
About 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and Kanara languages.1579
Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book at Cochin.1713
First Malayalam book printed by Catholic priests.By 1710
Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many translations of older works.From 1780
James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette — described as ‘a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’. Private English enterprise that began English printing in India. Hickey published gossip about Company’s senior officials. Enraged by this, Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey and encouraged publication of officially sanctioned newspapers.End of 18th century
A number of newspapers and journals appeared. Indians too began publishing Indian newspapers. The first Indian newspaper was the weekly Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.07 Religious Reform, Public Debates & New Publications
7. Religious Reform and Public Debates
From the early 19th century, intense debates around religious issues proliferated. Different groups offered new interpretations of various religious beliefs. These debates were carried out in public and in print. A wider public could now participate and express views. New ideas emerged through clashes of opinions.
| Bengal — Hindu debates | Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821. The Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions. Debates over widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. |
|---|---|
| Persian newspapers (1822) | Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar. In the same year, a Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, appeared. |
| North India — Islamic debates | The ulama used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves. Urdu print helped Muslim sects conduct public debates. |
| Hindu religious texts | First printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out from Calcutta in 1810. By mid-19th 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. |
| National Identity | Print did not only stimulate conflicting opinions but also connected communities and people in different parts of India. Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities. |
📖 New Words:
• Ulama — Legal scholars of Islam and the sharia (a body of Islamic law)
• Fatwa — A legal pronouncement on Islamic law usually given by a mufti (legal scholar) to clarify issues on which the law is uncertain
• Ulama — Legal scholars of Islam and the sharia (a body of Islamic law)
• Fatwa — A legal pronouncement on Islamic law usually given by a mufti (legal scholar) to clarify issues on which the law is uncertain
8. New Forms of Publication
Printing created an appetite for new kinds of writing. The novel — a literary form developed in Europe — ideally catered to the need to see one’s own lives reflected in what one read. It soon acquired distinctively Indian forms and styles. Other new literary forms: lyrics, short stories, essays about social and political matters.
By the end of the 19th century, a new visual culture was taking shape. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to decorate walls of their homes or workplaces. By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers, commenting on social and political issues.
08 Women, Poor People & Print in India
8.1 Women and Print
Women’s reading increased enormously in middle-class homes. Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home, and sent them to schools after the mid-19th century. Many journals began carrying writings by women and explained why women should be educated.
| Opposition | Conservative Hindus believed a literate girl would be widowed. Muslims feared educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances. |
|---|---|
| Rashsundari Debi | Young married girl in East Bengal in the early 19th century. Learnt to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban, published in 1876 — the first full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language. |
| Kailashbashini Debi (1860s) | Bengali woman who wrote books highlighting the experiences of women — about how women were imprisoned at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hard domestic labour and treated unjustly. |
| Tarabai Shinde & Pandita Ramabai (1880s) | In present-day Maharashtra, wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows. |
| Hindi printing | Began seriously only from the 1870s. Soon a large segment was devoted to the education of women. In the early 20th century, journals written for and sometimes edited by women became extremely popular. |
| Bengal — Battala | An entire area in central Calcutta — the Battala — was devoted to the printing of popular books. Cheap editions of religious tracts, scriptures, as well as literature considered obscene and scandalous. Pedlars took Battala publications to homes, enabling women to read them in leisure time. |
📄 Source E — Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, 1926 (UPSC Important)
In 1926, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, a noted educationist and literary figure, strongly condemned men for withholding education from women in the name of religion, addressing the Bengal Women’s Education Conference:‘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. If men are not led astray once educated, why should women?’
8.2 Print and the Poor People
| Cheap books | Very cheap small books brought to markets in 19th-century Madras towns and sold at crossroads, allowing poor people to buy them. |
|---|---|
| Public libraries | Set up from the early 20th century, expanding access to books. Located mostly in cities and towns; for rich local patrons, setting up a library was a way of acquiring prestige. |
| Caste discrimination literature | Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871). In the 20th century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar) in Madras wrote powerfully on caste — their writings were read by people all over India. |
| Workers writing | 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 who wrote under the name of Sudarshan Chakr (1935–1955) had his poems published as Sacchi Kavitayan. |
| Bangalore workers | By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves, following the example of Bombay workers. These were sponsored by social reformers who tried to restrict excessive drinking, bring literacy, and propagate the message of nationalism. |
09 Print and Censorship in India
Before 1798
Colonial state under EIC was not too concerned with censorship. Strangely, early measures were directed against Englishmen in India critical of Company misrule — the Company feared such criticisms might be used by critics in England to attack its trade monopoly.1820s
Calcutta Supreme Court passed regulations to control press freedom. The Company began encouraging publication of newspapers that would celebrate British rule.1835
Faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and vernacular newspapers, Governor-General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws. Thomas Macaulay, a liberal colonial official, formulated new rules that restored earlier freedoms.After 1857 Revolt
Attitude to freedom of press changed. Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the ‘native’ press. As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, the colonial government began debating stringent controls.1878
Vernacular Press Act passed, modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. Government kept regular track of vernacular newspapers. When a report was judged seditious, the newspaper was warned; if warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and printing machinery confiscated.1907
When Punjab revolutionaries were deported, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy in his Kesari. This led to his imprisonment in 1908, provoking widespread protests all over India.WWI — Defence of India Rules
22 newspapers had to furnish securities. Of these, 18 shut down rather than comply with government orders.1919 — Rowlatt
Sedition Committee Report under Rowlatt further strengthened controls — imposed penalties on various newspapers.WWII — Defence of India Act
Censoring of reports on war-related topics. All reports about the Quit India movement came under its purview. In August 1942, about 90 newspapers were suppressed.📄 Source F — Gandhi said in 1922 (UPSC Critical)
‘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 before all else…’
📊 Chapter Master Summary — Print Culture in India:
- Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in all parts of India. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities.
- Attempts to throttle nationalist criticism provoked militant protest — renewed cycle of persecution and protests.
- Print connected communities across India, creating pan-Indian identities — crucial for the nationalist movement.
📊 Complete Timeline — Key Print History Dates
| AD 594 | China — woodblock printing begins |
|---|---|
| AD 768–770 | Buddhist missionaries introduce hand-printing to Japan |
| AD 868 | Oldest Chinese book — Buddhist Diamond Sutra |
| Mid-13th century | Tripitaka Koreana — 80,000 woodblocks (Korea) |
| Late 14th century | Jikji — world’s oldest movable metal type book (Korea) |
| 11th century | Chinese paper reaches Europe via silk route |
| 1295 | Marco Polo returns to Italy, brings woodblock printing knowledge |
| Early 15th century | Woodblocks widely used in Europe for textiles, playing cards, religious pictures |
| 1430s | Johann Gutenberg develops first printing press at Strasbourg, Germany |
| 1448 | Gutenberg perfects the system; prints the Bible (180 copies, 3 years) |
| 1450–1550 | Printing presses set up in most European countries |
| 1517 | Martin Luther posts 95 Theses — Protestant Reformation |
| 1558 | Roman Catholic Church begins Index of Prohibited Books |
| Mid-16th century | Printing press comes to India (Goa) with Portuguese missionaries |
| 1579 | First Tamil book printed at Cochin |
| 1674 | About 50 books printed in Konkani and Kanara languages |
| 1713 | First Malayalam book printed |
| 1780 | James Augustus Hickey begins Bengal Gazette |
| 1810 | First printed edition of Ramcharitmanas from Calcutta |
| 1821 | Rammohun Roy publishes Sambad Kaumudi |
| 1857 | Children’s press set up in France |
| 1867 | Deoband Seminary founded |
| 1871 | Jyotiba Phule’s Gulamgiri |
| 1876 | Rashsundari Debi’s Amar Jiban — first autobiography in Bengali |
| 1878 | Vernacular Press Act passed |
| 1870s | Caricatures and cartoons published in journals; Hindi printing began seriously |
| 1908 | Tilak imprisoned for writing in Kesari |
| 1938 | Kashibaba’s Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal |
| August 1942 | About 90 newspapers suppressed during Quit India Movement |
📝 UPSC-Standard MCQs — Print Culture and the Modern World
Q1 Which of the following correctly describes the Jikji of Korea?
A) A 13th-century collection of Buddhist scriptures engraved on 80,000 woodblocks
✓ AnsB) Among the world’s oldest books printed with movable metal type, printed in the late 14th century, inscribed on UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2001
C) A 9th-century Chinese Buddhist text containing six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations
D) A collection of ukiyo prints by Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro
The Jikji of Korea is among the world’s oldest existing books printed with movable metal type, containing essential features of Zen Buddhism. It was printed in the late 14th century. Its second volume is in the National Library of France. It was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2001. Option A describes the Tripitaka Koreana; option C describes the Diamond Sutra.
Q2 Johann Gutenberg’s printing press was developed using knowledge drawn from various sources. Which of the following correctly identifies its origins?
A) He adapted Chinese woodblock technology brought by Marco Polo and combined it with Islamic calligraphy techniques
✓ AnsB) The olive press provided the model for the printing press, and moulds used for making trinkets were adapted to cast metal types for the letters of the alphabet
C) He developed the press purely based on theoretical knowledge from his university studies in metallurgy
D) The press was based on the wine press model, and Buddhist printing techniques from Japan provided the concept of moveable type
NCERT explicitly states: “The olive press provided the model for the printing press, and moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet.” Gutenberg drew on his knowledge of polishing stones, goldsmithing, and creating lead moulds for trinkets — combining multiple practical skills to design his innovation.
Q3 Consider the following statements about the Protestant Reformation and print:
1. Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses in 1517 criticising the Roman Catholic Church.
2. Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold 5,000 copies within a few weeks.
3. Luther called printing ‘the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.’
4. The Roman Church began an Index of Prohibited Books in 1558 partly in response to the threat of uncontrolled print.
2. Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold 5,000 copies within a few weeks.
3. Luther called printing ‘the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.’
4. The Roman Church began an Index of Prohibited Books in 1558 partly in response to the threat of uncontrolled print.
A) 1, 2, and 3 only
✓ AnsB) All of the above
C) 1 and 4 only
D) 2, 3, and 4 only
All four statements are accurate as per NCERT. (1) Luther wrote the 95 Theses in 1517 and posted a printed copy on a church door in Wittenberg; (2) His New Testament translation sold 5,000 copies in a few weeks; (3) Luther said “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”; (4) The Roman Church maintained an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558, troubled by effects of popular readings like Menocchio’s.
Q4 How did print culture create the conditions for the French Revolution? Which of these arguments is NOT mentioned in NCERT?
A) Print popularised the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers who attacked Church and despotic power of the state
B) Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate where all values and institutions were re-evaluated
C) By the 1780s, literature mocked the royalty and led to growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy
✓ AnsD) Print directly caused the French Revolution by making the masses immediately responsive to calls for armed uprising
NCERT explicitly cautions that “Print did not directly shape their minds, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.” The three arguments given are (A), (B), and (C). Option D contradicts NCERT’s nuanced conclusion that people “accepted some ideas and rejected others” and “interpreted things their own way” — print did not directly cause the Revolution.
Q5 Which of the following is the correct sequence of the introduction of printing in India?
A) First Tamil book (1579) → First Malayalam book (1713) → Bengal Gazette by Hickey (1780) → First printed Ramcharitmanas (1810)
B) Bengal Gazette (1780) → First Tamil book (1579) → First Malayalam book (1713) → Ramcharitmanas (1810)
✓ AnsC) Goa with Portuguese missionaries (mid-16th century) → First Tamil book at Cochin (1579) → First Malayalam book (1713) → Bengal Gazette by Hickey (1780) → First printed Ramcharitmanas (1810)
D) Dutch Protestant missionaries (1579) → First Tamil book (1713) → Bengal Gazette (1780) → Ramcharitmanas (1810)
The correct chronological sequence as per NCERT: Printing press came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-16th century → Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin → first Malayalam book in 1713 → James Augustus Hickey began Bengal Gazette from 1780 → first printed edition of Ramcharitmanas came from Calcutta in 1810.
Q6 The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was:
A) Passed by Governor-General Bentinck to restore press freedoms that had been curtailed
B) A legislation introduced by Thomas Macaulay to regulate English-language newspapers in India
✓ AnsC) Modelled on the Irish Press Laws, it gave the government extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press, and allowed seizure of printing machinery if warnings were ignored
D) An Act passed after the Quit India Movement to suppress nationalist newspapers
The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. The government kept regular track of vernacular newspapers. When a report was judged seditious, the newspaper was warned; if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery confiscated. It was passed AFTER the 1857 revolt, not after Quit India Movement.
Q7 Rashsundari Debi’s Amar Jiban (1876) was significant because:
A) It was the first book published by an Indian woman challenging colonial rule
B) It was the first printed edition of a religious text in the Bengali language
✓ AnsC) It was the first full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language, written by a woman who had learnt to read secretly in her kitchen
D) It was the first book to advocate widow remarriage, published in Maharashtra
Rashsundari Debi was a young married girl in East Bengal in a very orthodox household. She learnt to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later, she wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban which was published in 1876 — it was the first full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language. The book about widow remarriage in Maharashtra refers to writings by Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai in the 1880s.
Q8 Which of the following statements about print culture and reading in India is correct?
A) Pre-colonial Bengal had no schools, so literacy was entirely absent before the printing press
✓ AnsB) Even though pre-colonial Bengal had an extensive network of village primary schools, students often did not read texts — they only learnt to write, with teachers dictating portions from memory
C) Manuscripts were widely used in everyday life because they were cheap and easy to read
D) The printing press completely replaced handwritten manuscripts in India within a decade of its introduction
NCERT explicitly states: “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 thus became literate without ever actually reading any kinds of texts.” Manuscripts were highly expensive and fragile, and continued to be produced till the late 19th century.
Q9 The Deoband Seminary (founded 1867) is associated with which of the following in the context of print culture?
A) It published the first Urdu newspaper in India to promote Islamic nationalism against the British
B) It set up the first lithographic press in India to print Hindi religious texts
✓ AnsC) It published thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines
D) It funded the publication of Rammohun Roy’s Sambad Kaumudi to promote religious reform
NCERT states: “The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives, and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines.” The ulama in north India used cheap lithographic presses and published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures to counter fears about colonial rulers encouraging conversion and changing Muslim personal laws.
Q10 With reference to print technology innovations in the 19th century, which of the following is correctly matched?
A) Richard M. Hoe — invented the offset press capable of printing six colours at a time in the late 19th century
B) Johann Gutenberg — perfected the power-driven cylindrical press in New York capable of 8,000 sheets per hour
✓ AnsC) Richard M. Hoe of New York — perfected the power-driven cylindrical press capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour, particularly useful for printing newspapers
D) Thomas Macaulay — introduced the Shilling Series in 1920s England to make books affordable for the poor
NCERT states: “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.” The offset press (six colours) was a separate development in the late 19th century. The Shilling Series (1920s) was a publishing strategy, not associated with Macaulay.
