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]
Name an Act which was passed by the British government to keep a regular track of the vernacular newspapers.
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.
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 was the major producer of printed material in China ? For what purpose this material was used ?
’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 ?
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.
What were the features of the new books which were produced in Europe after the invention of the Gutenberg's press ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
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.
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
What restrictions were imposed by the Vernacular Press Act on the Indian Press ? Explain. [CBSE-2011]
Or
In what ways the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was a repressive step by the Government ? Explain. [CBSE-2011]
State any three points of importance of penny chapbooks. [CBSE Sept. 2010.2011]
Or
Describe some of the new printed books which were sold by the pedlars in villages in the eighteenth century Europe. [CBSE-2012, 2014]
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]
Explain any three features of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print in India. [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2011. 2012. 2013]
Mass literacy increased many fold in the nineteenth century, in Europe. Women children and workers started reading books. Discuss.