Print Culture and the Modern World

(A) Print and the Muslims :
(i) Ulemas and the print : In North India, the Ulemas, i.e., the religious heads of Muslims were deeply worried about the collapse of the Muslim dynasties. They feared that the colonial rulers would encourage conversion, and would change the Muslim personal laws. To counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses which published Persian and Urdu translations of the holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts.
(ii) Deoband Schools : The Deoband Seminary which was founded in 1867, published many fatwas making Muslim readers aware of the code of conduct to be followed in their everyday lives, and explained the meanings of Islamic doctrines.
(iii) Various Muslim Sects : All through the nineteenth century, a number of Muslim sects and seminaries appeared, each with a different interpretation of faith. Each was keen on enlarging its followers and countering the influence of its opponents. The Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in public.
(B) Print and the Hindus :
Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the readings of religious texts, especially in the vernacular languages.
(i) The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out from Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1810.
(ii) In the mid-nineteenth century, cheap lithographic editions flooded the North Indian markets.
(iii) From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published many religious texts in vernacular languages,
(iv) The printed text was cheap, land portable. These could be easily carried by the people at any place and time. They could also be read out to large groups of illiterate men and women.
(v) Religious texts and books started reaching a very wide circle of people, encouraging debates and controversies within and among different religions.