Chapter 5: Print Culture and the Modern World

(a) Although China had woodblock printing much earlier, the knowledge reached Europe only after Marco Polo returned to Italy in 1295 from China and brought it back — Europeans then began producing woodblock books. (b) Luther's Ninety Five Theses and writings spread rapidly in print (his New Testament translation sold 5,000 copies in weeks), helping the Reformation — so, grateful, he called ‘Printing … the ultimate gift of God.’ (c) Print let ordinary people (like the miller Menocchio) reinterpret the Bible and question faith, which enraged the Church; to repress such heretical/dissenting ideas it controlled publishers and kept an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558. (d) Because a free press, free speech and free association are the ‘powerful vehicles’ of cultivating public opinion; the colonial government sought to crush them, so defending these freedoms was central to the fight for Swaraj.

(a) The Gutenberg Press: developed by Johann Gutenberg at Strasbourg in the 1430s; he adapted the olive press and used metal moulds to cast movable type for the Roman alphabet. The first book printed was the Bible (~180 copies). It could print ~250 sheets per hour and remained the basic technology for ~300 years. (b) Erasmus's idea: the Latin scholar Erasmus was deeply anxious about printing — he felt the ‘swarms of new books’ created a harmful glut, and that among them were ‘stupid, ignorant, slanderous … irreligious and seditious books’ whose multitude made even valuable publications lose their value. (c) Vernacular Press Act (1878): modelled on the Irish Press Laws, it gave the colonial government extensive powers to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press; a seditious report brought a warning, and if ignored, the press and machinery could be confiscated.

(a) Women: their lives and feelings were written about vividly; women's reading grew in middle-class homes and some became writers — e.g. Rashsundari Debi (Amar Jiban, 1876), Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai — though conservatives feared educating girls. (b) The poor: cheap small books sold at crossroads and public libraries widened access; caste-protest writings (Jyotiba Phule's Gulamgiri, Ambedkar, Periyar) and even millworkers' writings reached a wide audience. (c) Reformers: newspapers, tracts and journals let reformers like Rammohun Roy (Sambad Kaumudi) and their orthodox opponents (Samachar Chandrika) debate issues in public (sati, widow remarriage, idolatry) in everyday language, shaping public opinion.

Many believed books could change the world — spread progress, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and usher in the rule of reason and intellect. The novelist Louise-Sebastien Mercier declared, ‘The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away,’ and ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!’ Print popularised Enlightenment ideas (reason over custom) and created a culture of debate in which people questioned authority — so they saw it as a force for enlightenment against despotism.

People feared that if there was no control over what was printed, rebellious and irreligious ideas would spread and the authority of ‘valuable’ literature would be destroyed. Europe: the Roman Catholic Church feared popular reinterpretations of the Bible — the miller Menocchio was executed, and the Church kept an Index of Prohibited Books; Erasmus feared a ‘glut’ of harmful books. India: the colonial government feared the nationalist vernacular press and passed the Vernacular Press Act (1878) to censor it; conservatives also feared that educated women would be ‘corrupted’ by reading.

Cheap small books were sold at crossroads in Madras towns, so poor travellers could buy them, and public libraries (from the early 20th c.) widened access. Issues of caste discrimination were now written about — Jyotiba Phule's Gulamgiri (1871), and later Ambedkar and Periyar, were read all over India. Even millworkers wrote and published (Kashibaba's Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal, 1938; Sudarshan Chakr's poems), and workers in Bangalore and Bombay set up libraries to educate themselves — print gave the poor and oppressed a voice.

Despite repressive laws, nationalist newspapers grew across India, reporting on colonial misrule and encouraging nationalist activity; attempts to throttle them provoked protest (e.g. Tilak's Kesari led to his imprisonment in 1908 and nationwide protests). Print connected communities, conveying news from place to place and creating pan-Indian identities. Cartoons and caricatures criticised imperial rule, and leaders used the press to spread the ideas of swaraj — so Gandhi called the fight for Swaraj a fight for ‘liberty of speech, liberty of the press and freedom of association.’

(i) He was deeply anxious/critical of printing, despite being a reformer. (ii) That the sheer multitude ('glut') of books harmed scholarship, and that many books were ‘irreligious and seditious’, making even valuable works lose their value. (iii) Such fears sought to protect the authority of established religious and scholarly ‘valuable’ literature (and the Church), against uncontrolled popular reading.

(i) Print put books in the hands of ordinary people, enabling individual, independent interpretations of faith — knowledge was no longer controlled by elites. (ii) Such popular readings questioned the Church's sole right to decide belief (heresy), threatening its authority — so it repressed them. (iii) It shows ‘print and dissent’: print stimulated distinctive interpretations even among the little-educated, which is exactly why authorities feared and censored it.

(i) As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, enraged Englishmen demanded a clampdown on the ‘native’ press after the revolt. (ii) It gave the government extensive powers to censor vernacular reports/editorials — warn, then seize the press and confiscate machinery for seditious content. (iii) Repression backfired: nationalist papers grew in number, and throttling criticism (e.g. jailing Tilak) provoked militant protest, feeding a cycle of persecution and resistance.

(a) Both true and R explains A. Because print carried his ideas to vast numbers (his New Testament sold 5,000 copies in weeks) and helped the Reformation, Luther was grateful to print and praised it.

(d) A is false, R is true. Print did not directly shape minds — people were exposed to monarchical and Church propaganda too and interpreted things their own way (R); print only opened the possibility of thinking differently, so A is false.

(a) Both true and R explains A. Because instruction was by dictation and writing rather than reading, pupils could become literate (able to write) without actually reading any texts.

Print was not just a new way of making books — it changed people's relationship to information, knowledge and authority. (1) It lowered costs and created a new reading public, blurring the line between oral and reading cultures. (2) It enabled debate and dissent — Luther's Theses began the Reformation, and popular readings (Menocchio) challenged the Church, which responded with censorship and an Index of Prohibited Books. (3) It spread Enlightenment ideas (Voltaire, Rousseau) that questioned tradition and despotism, helping create conditions for the French Revolution. (4) It empowered new readers — children, women and workers. Thus print opened up new ways of thinking and weakened the monopoly of established authorities over knowledge.

Women: their lives and feelings were written about, and some defied conservative families to write — Rashsundari Debi's Amar Jiban (1876) was the first full-length Bengali autobiography; Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote on upper-caste women's plight. The poor and oppressed: cheap books and public libraries widened access, and caste-protest writing reached all India — Jyotiba Phule's Gulamgiri (1871), and later Ambedkar and Periyar; even millworkers like Kashibaba wrote and published. Reformers: they debated in print in everyday language — Rammohun Roy's Sambad Kaumudi (1821) argued against practices like sati, while the orthodoxy replied through Samachar Chandrika. Thus print let groups once excluded from public debate express their views and shape opinion.