Question 1.
Give reasons for the following:
(a)
Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.
(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 liberty of speech, liberty of the
press, and freedom of association.’
Answer:
(a) Woodblock print came to Europe
after 1295 only because Marco Polo, a great explorer, brought this knowledge
of printing from China
(b) Martin Luther, a Protestant reformer, was in favour of intellectual atmosphere so that new ideas help people know the truth. Printing was one such method. He had said: “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.
(c) The Roman Catholic Church kept an index of Prohibited books from the mid-sixteenth century to dissuade the people not to read these books which opposed the Catholic teachings.
(d) Gandhiji used to say that the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association because he found in Swaraj a means through which people could for their independent views express them, and above organise themselves into numerous groups.
Question 2.
Write short notes to show what
you know about:
(a) The Gutenberg Press.
(b) Erasmus’s idea of the printed book.
(c) The Vernacular Press Act.
Answer:
(a) The Gutenberg Press was a printing machine discovered by a German,
Johann Gutenberg in 1430s. This new technology provided for a printing press
which replaced the existing mode of producing books by hand. The first book
which he printed was the Bible about 180 copies were printed in about three
years, a time that was very fast in producing the book the standard of those
days.
(b) Erasmus, a Latin scholar, and like Martin Luther, a Catholic reformer but one who had distanced himself from Martin Luther expressed a deep anxiety about printing. He wrote in Adages (1808). 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] till the world with books, not just trifling things (such as I write, perhaps), but stupid, ignorant, slanderous, scandalous, raving irreligious and seditions books and the number of them is such that even the valuable publications lose their value.
(c) The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878 on the model of the Irish Press Laws. It provided the British government in India to prescribe restrictions on the freedom of press.
Question 3.
What did the spread of print
culture in nineteenth-century India mean to:
(a) Women
(b) The poor
(c) Reformers
Answer:
The spread of print culture in the 19th century India meant a lot to women,
the poor the reformers. The women cause to know about their deteriorating lot:
they began organizing themselves. The poor, through print culture, got
organised themselves, clamored for their rights, formed trade unions. The
reformers (Raja Rammohan Roy, for example), through printing culture, preached
the evils of the society and asked them to create an atmosphere of education,
rationalism and scientific understanding.
Discuss
Question 1.
Why did some people in
eighteenth-century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment
and end despotism?
Answer:
Some people, during the 18lh century Europe often thought that the print
culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism. Print culture meant
freedom of press and through this freedom, people would attain information
about what the despotic ruler do, the press would give then enlighten their
views, and the people would ultimately rise against tyranny. More knowledge
means more information, more information means more debates and discussion –
all these would lend people to resist injustice, tyranny, exploitation and
despotic rule.
Question 2.
Why did some people fear the
effect of easily available printed books? Choose one example from Europe and
one from India.
Answer:
Though some people welcomed the effect of available printed books in
inculcating knowledge and enlightenment among the people, there were others
who thought that the availability of printed books would create among the
people views against the rulers.
Some rulers thought that the printed material would lead to rebellion; (Catholic Church opposed such moves. This is clear from what the Catholic Church did against those who sought reforms. In India, Lord Lytton’s Vicerolty (1879 1880) passed the Vernacular Press Act (1878) against the freedom of press.
Question 3.
What were the efforts of the
spread of print culture for poor people in the nineteenth century India?
Answer:
The effects of the spread of print
culture for poor people in the nineteenth century India were enormous. As the
print culture spread, there were books available in the market; there were
libraries with books available for reading. The scholars and the reformers
began writing books.
The poor people came to know about the atrocities being inflicted on them in various parts of the country. Jyotiba Phule, B.R. Ambedkar, E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker wrote powerfully on caste and caste atrocities. This created a lot of awakening among the poor, especially the lower caste people. This also helped them to unite and fight for their rights.
Question 4.
Explain how print culture
assisted the growth of nationalism in India.
Answer:
The role of the print culture in
the growth of nationalism in India can hardly be devised. The early Congress
leaders, the moderates, took to print propaganda; the extremist Congress
leaders like B.G. Tilak (Kesari, Maratha), Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal
also inculcated the feelings of nationalism among the people.
Press is a powerful instrument of national awakening. Numerous new papers came up during the colonial role of Britain Gandhiji, Jawaharlal Nehru and other national leaders had the support and blessings of certain newspapers and journals, some even had launched newspapers. If the Indian leaders could unite their people, if they could launch certain movements, and if they could liberate their country, the role of the press, in their exercise was no less significant.