How did the print media affect the women in India?
Lives and feelings of women were written with intensity. This increased the number of women who took to reading. Liberal husbands and fathers started educating their womenfolk at home and some sent them to schools. Many journals began carrying writings by women, and explained why women should be educated. They also carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading matter which could be used for home-based schooling.
Superstition was a reason for illiteracy among a large population of women.
• Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed.
• Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.
Social reforms and novels created a great interest in women's lives and emotions. Women's opinions and views were slowly considered and respected. Stories were written about how 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. Stories about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows also appeared in print. These stories paved the way for the liberation of the suppressed Indian woman.
Other kinds of literature solely for women soon flooded the markets.
• Article on household and fashion lessons for women.
• Articles on issues like women's education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement.
• Short stories and serialised novels.
• Folk literature.
In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta the Battala was devoted to the printing of popular books. These books were being profusely illustrated with woodcuts and coloured lithographs. Peddlers took the Battala publications to homes, enabling women to read them in their leisure time.
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]
Why did some people in the eighteenth century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism ? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
Or
Assess the impact of print revolution on the European society. [CBSE 2013]
Who said "Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one ? ] [CBSE 2010. 11, 12]
Name an Act which was passed by the British government to keep a regular track of the vernacular newspapers.
’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 ?
What were the features of the new books which were produced in Europe after the invention of the Gutenberg's press ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Name any four languages in which Indian manuscript was prepared before the age of print.
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
c) The Vernacular Press Act
Why did some people in eighteenth century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism?
Give reasons for the following :
(a) Martin Luther was in favour of print, and spoke out in praise of it.
(b) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited books from the mid-sixteenth century.
(c) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for the liberty of speech, liberty of the press and freedom of association.
Write about the different innovations in the printing technology during the 19th century ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
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.
"Oral culture and print culture were complimentary to each other”. Justify the statement with any three suitable arguments. [CBSE 2013]
Many historians have argued that print culture created the conditions within which the French Revolution occurred.' Explain. [CBSE 2009 (O)]
Or
"Print culture created the conditions within which French revolution occurred."Give any three suitable arguments to support the statement. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]
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]