Print Culture and the Modern World Question and Answer Class 10 S.ST
1. What did the Grimm Brothers publish?
Ans. The Grimm Brothers of Germany compiled traditional folktales gathered from peasants and published them in 1812.
2. Which was the first book written by Gutenberg?
Ans. The bible was the first book written by Gutenberg.
3. Who brought the first printing press to India?
Ans. Portuguese missionaries.
4. Who developed the first printing press?
Ans. Johann Gutenberg
5. “The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.” Who said these words?
Ans. Louise Sebastian Mercier
6. Which method of hand-printing was developed in China?
Ans. From AD 594, books in China were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.
7. What were penny chapbooks?
Ans. Penny chapbooks were pocket-sized books sold for a penny by pedlars known as chapmen.
8. Why Charles Metcalfe is called the “Liberator of the Press” in India.
Ans. Charles Metcalfe was the Acting Governor General of India in 1835. He distinguished himself by liberating the Press in India and was responsible for removing all the restrictions on the press in India.
9. Mention the contribution of Richard M. Hoes (New York) in print culture in the mid-nineteenth century.
Ans.Richard M.Hoes had perfected the power-driven cylindrical press. This press was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour and was very useful for printing newspapers.
10. What was Protestant Reformation?
Ans. Protestant Reformation was a 16th Century movement to reform Catholic Church dominated by Rome. Martin Luther was one of the main Protestant reformers. He wrote Ninety Five Theses criticizing many practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. Several traditions of anti-Catholic Christianity developed out of the movement.
3 Marks Print Culture and the Modern World Question
1. Give any three reasons favouring shift from hand printing to mechanical printing in China?
Ans.
(1) By the 17th century, urban culture bloomed in China and the use of print diversified. It was important for a shift from hand printing to mechanical printing in China to take place. Print was no longer used just by scholar-officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life to collect trade information.
(2) Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. Rich women began to read and many women began publishing their poetry and plays.
(3) In the late 19th century as Western powers established their outposts in China, western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture catering to Western-style schools.
2. Highlight any three circumstances that led to the intermingling of the hearing culture and the reading culture.
Ans.
(1) With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books. Access to books created a new culture of reading. Earlier reading was restricted to the elite.
(2) Common people lived in a world of oral culture. They heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited and folk tales narrated. Knowledge was transferred orally.
(3) Printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales, illustrated with pictures. These were sung and recited at gatherings. Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted.
3. Highlight any three innovations which have improved the printing technology from nineteenth century onwards.
Ans.
(1) Methods of feeding paper improved.
(2) The quality of printing plates became better.
(3) Automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.
(4) The accumulation of several individual mechanical improvements transformed the appearance of printed texts.
5 Marks Print Culture and the Modern World Question
1. Write a short note on Vernacular Press Act.
Ans. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed by the British Government in India to impose restrictions on vernacular press, which was responsible for spreading nationalist ideas in much of India.
The government started to keep a regular track of the vernacular newspapers published in different provinces and had extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press.
When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned, and if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery confiscated.
The most discriminating aspect of the law was that though it put serious restrictions on the freedom of Indian language newspapers, yet it spared the English newspapers from its purview.
2. “Print not only stimulated the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also connected communities and people in different parts of India.” Examine the statement.
Ans.
By the close of the eighteenth century, a number of newspapers and journals appeared in print. The first newspaper to come out was the weekly Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya.
Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread new ideas, but they also shaped the nature of debate. A wider public could now participate in public discussions and express their views.
There were intense controversies between the social and religious reformers and Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. So that these ideas and thoughts could reach a wider audience, newspapers were printed in the spoken language of ordinary people.
Rammohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions. Two Persian newspapers, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar were also published.
After the collapse of Muslim dynasties Ulama feared that colonial rulers would change the Muslim personal laws. To counter this they published Persian and Urdu translations of Holy Scriptures and printed religious newspapers and tracts.
Newspapers and journals not only helped the publication of conflicting opinions but also connected people and communities in different parts of India. Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating Pan-Indian identities.