History

Print Culture and the Modern World

Question:

How the growth of print culture lead to women empowerment ? Explain.

Answer:

(i) Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping. When hovels began to be written in the nineteenth century, women were seen as important readers. 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.
(ii) Social reformers and novels created a great interest in women's lives and emotions, there was also an interest in what women would have to say about their own lives. From the 1860s, a few Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi 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 by the very people they served. In the 1880s, in present-day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows. A woman in a Tamil novel expressed what reading meant to women who were so greatly novel confined by social regulations : ‘For various reasons, my world is small … More than half my life's happiness has come from books.
(iii) While Urdu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi print culture had developed early, Hindi printing began seriously only from the 1870s. Soon, a large segment of it was devoted to the education of women. In the early twentieth century, journals, written for and sometimes edited by women, became extremely popular. They discussed issues like women's education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement. Some of them offered household and fashion lessons to women and brought entertainment through short stories and serialised novels.

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Print Culture and the Modern World

Q 1.

What is calligraphy?

Q 2.

How was sale of books promoted in small towns?

Q 3.

What is manuscript ?

Q 4.

Explain the main features of the first printed Bible. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
Describe any three main features of the first printed Bible. [CBSE 2014]

Q 5.

Describe the issue of caste as taken by the novelists in India. [CBSE 2013]

Q 6.

Which material was used to print pictures in Japan?

Q 7.

Name any two women novelist of the 19th century.

Q 8.

Who printed the first Tamil book ?

Q 9.

Name the first Weekly that appeared in India. Who bought it out ? (CBSE 2014)

Q 10.

Trace the history of print in China.
Or
How did China remain a major producer of printed materials for a long time ?
Or
The imperial state in China, was the major producer of printed material.' Support this statement. [CBSE 2014]

Q 11.

What was print revolution ?

Q 12.

Who started publishing Sambad Kaumudi from 1821?

Q 13.

What were Chap books ? (CBSE 2014)

Q 14.

Name the printing presses which published numerous religious texts in vernaculars from the 1880s.

Q 15.

Write about the different innovations in the printing technology during the 19th century ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]

Q 16.

Study the given paragraph and answer the following questions that follow :
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 ….'
(i) Who said these words ?

(ii) Name the freedoms he is talking about.

Q 17.

How did printing press create a new- reading public ? Explain. [CBSF. Sept. 2013]
Or
"There was a virtual reading mania in European countries in the 18th century". Explain the factors responsible for this virtual reading mania.

Q 18.

Write a brief note on Martin Luther.

Q 19.

What was the role of cartoons and caricatures in the French Revolution ?

Q 20.

Name two scholars whose writings inspired French people.

Q 21.

Who wrote Istri Dharam Vichar ?

Q 22.

Name any four Indian women writers of the 19th century.

Q 23.

What was Vernacular Press Act ? (CBSE 2014)

Q 24.

Explain how the print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]

Q 25.

Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers.' Explain. [CBSE 2014]
Or
How did ideas about science, reason and rationality find their way into popular literature in the 18th century Europe ?  [CBSE Sept. 2010]

Q 26.

Explain any three features of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2011. 2012. 2013]

Q 27.

Who brought out the first Indian newspaper published in English?

Q 28.

Not everyone welcomed the printed books, and those who did also had fears about it.' Explain by giving examples.

Q 29.

Who were scribes ?

Q 30.

Who developed the first printing press ?

Q 31.

Name the first book published by Johann Guttenbcrg.

Q 32.

Who was Martin Luther ?

Q 33.

In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties. They feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion, change the Muslim personal laws. Mention any two steps taken by them to counter this.

Q 34.

Who wrote Gulamgiri ? (CBSE 2014)

Q 35.

’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….’
Who said these words ?

Q 36.

How the growth of print culture lead to women empowerment ? Explain.

Q 37.

What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to:
a) Women
b) The poor
c) Reformers.

Q 38.

What were the effects of the spread of print culture for poor people in nineteenth century India?

Q 39.

Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.

Q 40.

How had the earliest printing technology developed in the world ? Explain. [CBSE 2012]

Q 41.

Who was Marco Polo ? What was his contribution to print culture ? [CBSE 2013]

Q 42.

The shift from handprinting to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.’ Explain.

Q 43.

How did the urban population use the print media?

Q 44.

Give a brief description of the first form of print technology.

Q 45.

Give a brief description of the first form of print technology.

Q 46.

How did the print revolution influence the reading habit of the people of Europe?

Q 47.

Explain the factors which were responsible for creating a virtual reading mania in Europe. [CBSE 2014]
Or
How did a new reading public emerged with the printing press ? Explain. [CBSE 2010 (D)]
Or
Explain any three reasons for an increase in reading mania in Europe in the 18th Century. [CBSE Sept. 2011]

Q 48.

Printing press played a major role in shaping the Indian society of the 19th century.' Explain by giving examples.  [CBSE Sept. 2012, 2013]
Or
Explain the role of press in shaping the Indian society in the 19th century.
Or
How did print introduce debate and discussion ? Write three points. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011, 2012]
Or
"Print led to intense controversies between social and religious reformers and Hindu orthodoxy."Support this statement with examples. [CBSE 2013]

Q 49.

How were ideas and information written before the age of print in India ? How did the printing technique begin in India ? Explain. [CBSE 2008, Sept. 2010]
Or
Explain the role of missionaries in the growth of press in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010]

Q 50.

Explain the impact of print culture on Indian women. [CBSE 2009 (O), Sept. 2012]
Or
Explain any three impact of printed books on women in India in the nineteenth century.
[CBSE Sept. 2010]