The chapter Print Culture and the Modern World for class 10 is a very lengthy chapter. Preparing it is really a daunting task.
Moreover as per the new cbse sample papers for 2025-2026 board exams, the maximum marks for history is 20. Therefore you need to prepare the chapter in a wise manner paying attention to the most important points and topics.
Therefore we have created Print Culture and the Modern World Short Notes for you.
First we have provided the main topic and then the subtopic notes in a easy to read and memorize manner. The importnat keywords are made in bold for quick reading.
At the end of each main topic we have provided the meanings of important keywords from the examnination point of view
You can go to the desired section of the notes by clicking on the table of contents
much before printing began in India. You can see
the text being dictated, written and illustrated. The
art of writing and illustrating by hand was
important in the age before print.
Source: NCERT
The First Printed Books
Where was the earliest print technology developed?
China, Japan, and Korea developed the earliest print technology using hand printing.
How were books printed in China from AD 594?
- Books were printed by rubbing paper against inked woodblocks.
- Paper was thin and porous, so only one side could be printed.
- Books were folded into accordion style and stitched at the side.
Who was the main producer of printedmaterial in China?
- The imperial state was the major producer.
- It supported civil service examinations, so textbooks were printed in large numbers.
Why did print volume increase from the 16th century?
The number of examination candidates rose, leading to higher demand for printed books.
How did print use change by the 17th century?
Print was no longer just for scholar-officials.
- Merchants used print for trade info
- Reading became leisure
- New readers liked fiction, poetry, plays, autobiographies
- Rich women read and published their own works
- Courtesans wrote about their lives
What new printing technology came in the late 19th century?
- Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported.
- Shanghai became the hub of new print culture, serving Western-style schools.
- Shift from hand printing to mechanical printing began.
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Hand printing | Early method using inked woodblocks and paper |
| Accordion book | Folded book style used in China due to single-side printing |
| Imperial state | China’s ruling government that sponsored printing |
| Civil service exams | Competitive tests to join government jobs |
| Urban culture | City-based lifestyle that encouraged leisure reading |
| Mechanical presses | Western machines that replaced hand printing |
| Courtesans | Educated women entertainers who also wrote literature |
| Woodblocks | Carved wooden blocks used for printing text/images |
Print in Japan
How did printing reach Japan?
Buddhist missionaries from China brought hand-printing technology to Japan around AD 768–770.
What is the oldest Japanese printed book?
The Buddhist Diamond Sutra (AD 868) – contains six text sheets and woodcut illustrations.
Print Culture and the Modern World Short Notes
What items besides books were printed in Japan?
Printed on:
- Textiles
- Playing cards
- Paper money
What was the state of book publishing in medieval Japan?
- Poets and prose writers were regularly published
- Books were cheap and abundant
How did visual printing shape Japanese culture in the 18th century?
In Edo (later Tokyo):
- Illustrated painting collections showed elegant urban life
- Featured artists, courtesans, and teahouse gatherings
Belonging to the mid-13th
century, printing woodblocks of
the Tripitaka Koreana are a Korean
collection of Buddhist scriptures.
They were engraved on about
80,000 woodblocks.
Source:NCERT
What kinds of hand-printed
materials filled bookstores?
Bookstores and libraries
stocked books on:
- Women
- Musical instruments
- Calculations
- Tea ceremony
- Flower arrangements
- Etiquette
- Cooking
- Famous places
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Hand-printing | Early printing using carved blocks and ink |
| Diamond Sutra | Oldest dated Japanese printed book (AD 868) |
| Woodcut illustrations | Images carved into wood and printed with text |
| Edo | Historic name for Tokyo; cultural hub in 18th century |
| Courtesans | High-status entertainers often featured in art/literature |
| Teahouse gatherings | Social events central to urban Japanese culture |
| Paper money | Early printed currency in Japan |
| Abundant books | Wide availability due to low-cost hand printing |
Print Comes to Europe
How did paper reach Europe?
Via the Silk Route in the 11th century from China.
Enabled production of handwritten manuscripts by scribes.
Who brought woodblock
printing knowledge to Europe?
- Marco Polo returned to Italy in 1295 after exploring China.
- He introduced Chinese woodblock printing technology.
How did Europeans start using woodblock printing?
- Italians began printing books using woodblocks
- Technology spread across Europe
- Luxury books still handwritten on expensive vellum for aristocrats and monasteries
- Merchants and students bought cheaper printed copies
How did book trade grow in Europe?
- Booksellers exported books to many countries
- Book fairs held in various cities
- Scribes now worked for booksellers, not just wealthy patrons
- One bookseller could employ over 50 scribes
Why couldn’t handwritten
manuscripts meet demand?
- Expensive, slow, and labor-intensive to copy
- Fragile and hard to handle or carry
- Limited circulation
→ Led to rising popularity of woodblock printing
What was woodblock printing used for in early 15th-century Europe?
- Textiles
- Playing cards
- Religious pictures with short texts
What major breakthrough
happened in the 1430s?
- Johann Gutenberg invented the first printing press in Strasbourg, Germany.
- This allowed faster, cheaper, and mass reproduction of texts.
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Silk Route | Trade network linking Asia and Europe; brought paper to Europe |
| Manuscripts | Handwritten books, often on vellum, made by scribes |
| Vellum | Expensive animal-skin paper used for luxury books |
| Woodblock printing | Early print method using carved wooden blocks |
| Scribes | Skilled writers who copied texts by hand |
| Book fairs | Markets where booksellers traded and sold books across Europe |
| Gutenberg | Inventor of the movable-type printing press (1430s) |
| Printing press | Revolutionary machine that enabled mass book production |
Gutenberg and the Printing Press
Who was Gutenberg?
- Son of a merchant, grew up on a farm estate.
- Became a master goldsmith and learned to
make lead moulds for trinkets.
What inspired Gutenberg’s printing press?
- Olive and wine presses → model for the printing press
- Lead moulds → used to cast metal letters (movable type)
When did Gutenberg perfect his system?
By 1448.
First major book: the Gutenberg Bible – 180 copies in 3 years (fast for that time).
Did printed books replace handwritten ones immediately?
No. Early printed books looked like manuscripts:
- Metal letters copied handwritten styles
- Borders and illustrations still hand-painted
- Blank spaces left for custom decoration by buyers
How fast did printing spread in Europe?
- Between 1450–1550, presses set up in most European countries
- German printers traveled to start new presses abroad
- Book production exploded
How many books were printed in the first 100 years?
- 1450s–1500: ~20 million copies
- By 1600: ~200 million copies
What was the result of this change? | What Caused The Print Revolution?
Shift from hand printing to mechanical printing caused the Print Revolution.
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Gutenberg | German inventor of the movable-type printing press |
| Movable type | Individual metal letters that can be rearranged and reused |
| Printing press | Machine that uses pressure to transfer ink from type to paper |
| Gutenberg Bible | First major book printed with movable type (~1455) |
| Manuscript style | Early printed books copied the look of handwritten books |
| Illuminated borders | Decorative hand-painted edges in luxury printed books |
| Print Revolution | Massive cultural shift due to mass production of books |
| Lead moulds | Molds used to cast identical metal letters quickly |
The Print Revolution and Its Impact
What was the Print Revolut on?
Not just a new book-making method – it transformed society:
- Changed how people accessed information and knowledge
- Altered views on institutions and authority
- Shifted popular perceptions
- Opened new ways of thinking
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Print Revolution | Massive social and intellectual shift caused by mass printing |
| Reading public | Growing population of ordinary people who read printed material |
| Authority | Traditional power holders (e.g., Church, monarchy) challenged by print |
| Independent thinking | People formed their own opinions using printed information |
A New Reading Public
How did the printing press
create a new reading public?
- Reduced book cost
- Faster, easier production → more copies
- Books flooded the market → reached wider audiences
What changed in reading
culture after print?
- Before print:
- Only elites read
- Common people lived in oral culture (listened to stories, ballads, sacred texts)
- No individual silent reading
- After print:
- Reading public emerged
- People began reading alone and silently
Why wasn’t the shift to reading straightforward?
- Low literacy rates in Europe (until 20th century)
- Most common people could not read
How did publishers reach non-readers?
- Printed popular ballads and folk tales
- Added many illustrations
- These books were sung or recited aloud in:
- Villages
- Taverns
- Public gatherings
What happened to oral and print cultures?
- Oral culture entered print
- Printed material was shared orally
- Boundary blurred between hearing and reading
- Hearing public + reading public = intermingled
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Reading public | People who read printed books individually |
| Oral culture | Tradition of sharing knowledge through speech, songs, and storytelling |
| Hearing public | People who received stories and news by listening, not reading |
| Literacy | Ability to read and write – limited before the 20th century |
| Ballads | Narrative folk songs, often printed and sung aloud |
| Folk tales | Traditional stories of common people, now printed with pictures |
| Illustrated books | Printed books with images to attract non-readers |
| Intermingled cultures | Oral and print traditions blended in public life |
Religious Debates and the Fear of Print
What did print enable?
- Wide circulation of ideas
- New world of debate and discussion
- People could print ideas against authorities
- Printed message could persuade people and move them to action
Why were some people afraid of print?
- Feared easier access to printed word
- Worried about wider circulation of books
- Thought rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread
- Believed authority of ‘valuable’ literature would be destroyed
- Religious authorities, monarchs, writers, and artists expressed this fear
How did print affect religion in early modern Europe?
- In 1517, Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses
- Criticised practices and rituals of Roman Catholic Church
- Printed copy posted on church door in Wittenberg
- Challenged Church to debate his ideas
What was the impact of Luther’s writings?
- Immediately reproduced in vast numbers
- Read widely
- Led to division within Church
- Marked beginning of Protestant Reformation
- His New Testament translation:
- 5,000 copies sold in weeks
- Second edition in three months
What did Luther say about print?
He Called print “the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”
What do scholars say about print and Reformation?
- Print created a new intellectual atmosphere
- Helped spread new ideas that led to the Reformation
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Enabled wide circulation of ideas and debate | |
| Rebellious thoughts | Ideas feared to spread without control over print |
| Irreligious thoughts | Beliefs seen as against religion, feared to spread |
| Valuable literature | Traditional texts whose authority was thought at risk |
| Martin Luther | Religious reformer who used print to challenge the Church |
| Ninety Five Theses | Criticism of Catholic Church practices, widely printed |
| Protestant Reformation | Movement beginning after Luther’s printed ideas spread |
| New intellectual atmosphere | Climate of thought created by print, aiding Reformation |
Print and Dissent
How did print affect religious beliefs among common people?
- Print and popular religious literature led to distinctive individual interpretations of faith
- Even little-educated working people formed their own views
Who was Menocchio?
- A miller in Italy in the sixteenth century
- Read books available in his locality
- Reinterpreted the Bible
- Formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church
What happened to Menocchio?
- Hauled up twice by the Roman Church inquisition
- Executed for heretical ideas
How did the Roman Church respond to such dissent?
- Troubled by popular readings and questionings of faith
- Imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers
- Began maintaining an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Print and dissent | Print enabled people to question and challenge official religious views |
| Individual interpretations | Personal understandings of faith formed through reading |
| Menocchio | Italian miller executed for reinterpreting the Bible |
| Heretical ideas | Beliefs that opposed official Church doctrine |
| Inquisition | Church effort to repress heretical ideas |
| Index of Prohibited Books | List of banned books maintained by the Roman Church from 1558 |
| Popular religious literature | Religious books read by common people, not just elites |
| Severe controls | Restrictions placed on publishers and booksellers by the Church |
The Reading Mania
Why did literacy rise in 17th–18th century Europe?
- Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages
- Brought literacy to peasants and artisans
- By late 18th century, literacy reached 60–80% in some areas
What was the “reading mania”?
- As literacy and schools spread, people wanted books
- Printers produced books in ever-increasing numbers
What new forms of popular literature appeared?
- Almanacs (ritual calendars)
- Ballads and folktales
- Penny chapbooks in England – sold by chapmen for a penny
- “Bibliothèque Bleue” in France – low-priced, poor-quality paper, blue covers
- Romances (4–6 pages)
- ‘Histories’ – stories about the past
- Books of various sizes for different purposes and interests
How did books reach rural areas?
- Booksellers employed pedlars
- Pedlars roamed villages selling little books
What role did the periodical press play?
- Developed from early 18th century
- Combined current affairs with entertainment
- Newspapers and journals carried news on:
- Wars
- Trade
- Developments in other places
How did scientific and philosophical ideas spread?
- Ancient and medieval scientific texts compiled and published
- Maps and scientific diagrams widely printed
- Isaac Newton’s discoveries reached wider scientifically minded readers
- Writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau widely printed
- Their ideas on science, reason, and rationality entered popular literature
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Reading mania | Huge surge in demand for books due to rising literacy |
| Chapmen | Petty pedlars who sold penny chapbooks in England |
| Penny chapbooks | Cheap books sold for a penny, affordable for the poor |
| Bibliothèque Bleue | Low-cost French books with blue covers |
| Almanacs | Ritual calendars printed for popular use |
| Periodical press | Newspapers and journals mixing news and entertainment |
| Scientific diagrams | Visual aids widely printed to explain science |
| Popular literature | Books and texts that carried ideas of reason and science to common people |
‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!’
What did people believe about books by the mid-18th century?
- Books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment
- Could change the world
- Could liberate society from despotism and tyranny
- Would herald a time when reason and intellect would rule
What did Louis-Sébastien Mercier say about the printing press?
- Called it “the most powerful engine of progress”
- Said “public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away”
How did Mercier show the power of reading in his novels?
- Heroes transformed by reading
- They devour books, are lost in the world books create, and become enlightened
What did Mercier proclaim to tyrants?
- “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!”
- Believed print could destroy the basis of despotism
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Enlightenment | Intellectual movement promoting reason and progress through books |
| Despotism | Tyrannical rule that books were believed to destroy |
| Printing press | Called “the most powerful engine of progress” by Mercier |
| Public opinion | Seen as force that would “sweep despotism away” |
| Virtual writer | Symbol of the power of print to challenge tyranny |
| Louis-Sébastien Mercier | French novelist who praised print as a tool of liberation |
| Reason and intellect | Values believed to replace tyranny through reading |
| Progress | Social and intellectual advancement driven by books |
Print Culture and the French Revolution
Did print culture help cause the French Revolution?
Many historians say print culture created the conditions for the Revolution.
What is the first argument?
- Print popularised Enlightenment ideas
- Thinkers criticised tradition, superstition, and despotism
- Argued for rule of reason, not custom
- Attacked Church authority and state despotism
- Voltaire and Rousseau widely read
- Readers saw the world with questioning, critical, rational eyes
What is the second argument?
- Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate
- Public re-evaluated values, norms, institutions
- People aware of reason, questioned existing beliefs
- New ideas of social revolution emerged
What is the third argument?
- In 1780s, literature mocked royalty and criticised their morality
- Raised questions about social order
- Cartoons and caricatures showed monarchy lost in sensual pleasures
- Common people shown suffering hardships
- This literature circulated underground
- Led to hostile sentiments against monarchy
How should we understand these arguments?
- Print helped spread ideas, but people read many kinds of literature
- Also exposed to monarchical and Church propaganda
- Did not accept everything they read
- Accepted some ideas, rejected others
- Interpreted things their own way
- Print did not directly shape minds, but opened possibility of thinking differently
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Print culture | Environment created by widespread printing and reading |
| Enlightenment thinkers | Writers like Voltaire and Rousseau who promoted reason |
| Despotism | Tyrannical rule attacked by Enlightenment ideas |
| Rule of reason | Belief that reason, not tradition, should guide society |
| Dialogue and debate | Public discussion enabled by print |
| Caricatures | Mocking images of royalty showing moral failure |
| Underground literature | Banned or secret writings criticising monarchy |
| Thinking differently | Print opened minds to new interpretations, not direct control |
The Nineteenth Century
What happened to literacy in 19th-century Europe?
- Vast leaps in mass literacy
- Large numbers of new readers emerged among:
- Children
- Women
- Workers
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Mass literacy | Widespread ability to read across the general population |
| New readers | Groups like children, women, and workers who began reading in large numbers |
| Nineteenth century | Period (1800s) marked by rapid expansion of reading public in Europe |
Children, Women and Workers
Why did children become important readers?
- Primary education became compulsory (late 19th century)
- School textbooks became critical for publishing industry
- Children’s press set up in France in 1857
- Published new works, fairy tales, and folk tales
How were folk tales changed for print?
- Grimm Brothers (Germany) collected tales from peasants
- Published collection in 1812
- Edited before publishing:
- Removed anything unsuitable for children
- Removed anything vulgar to elites
- Rural folk tales acquired a new form
- Print recorded old tales but also changed them
How did women participate in print culture?
- Became important as readers and writers
- Penny magazines and housekeeping manuals aimed at women
- Novels in 19th century targeted women as key readers
- Famous women novelists:
- Jane Austen
- Brontë sisters
- George Eliot
- Their writings defined a new type of woman:
- With will, strength, determination, and power to think
How did workers engage with reading and writing?
- Lending libraries existed since 17th century
- In 19th century, they educated:
- White-collar workers
- Artisans
- Lower-middle-class people
- Self-educated workers wrote for themselves
- After working day shortened (mid-19th century), workers had time for:
- Self-improvement
- Self-expression
- Wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Children’s press | Publishing house (France, 1857) for literature only for children |
| Grimm Brothers | Collected and edited folk tales for children (published 1812) |
| Edited folk tales | Rural stories changed to remove “unsuitable” or “vulgar” content |
| Penny magazines | Cheap magazines aimed especially at women |
| New type of woman | Independent, thoughtful, strong-willed – shaped by women novelists |
| Lending libraries | Libraries that loaned books; educated workers in 19th-century England |
| Political tracts | Short writings on politics, widely written by workers |
| Autobiographies | Personal life stories written in large numbers by working-class people |
India and the World of Print
Manuscripts Before the Age of Print
What was India’s manuscript tradition like?
- Rich and old tradition
- Written in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and vernacular languages
- Copied on palm leaves or handmade paper
- Sometimes beautifully illustrated
- Pressed between wooden covers or sewn together for preservation
- Produced till late nineteenth century – even after print arrived
Why were manuscripts not widely used?
- Highly expensive
- Fragile
- Had to be handled carefully
- Not easy to read – scripts in different styles
- Not part of everyday life
How was literacy practiced
in pre-colonial Bengal?
- Village primary schools existed
- But students often did not read texts
- Teachers dictated portions from memory
- Students wrote them down
- Many became literate without reading any texts
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Manuscripts | Handwritten texts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and vernacular languages |
| Palm leaves | Natural material used for writing manuscripts |
| Handmade paper | Paper made locally for copying texts |
| Wooden covers | Used to protect manuscript pages |
| Fragile | Manuscripts were delicate and easily damaged |
| Script styles | Different handwriting styles made reading difficult |
| Pre-colonial Bengal | Region with village schools where writing was taught, not reading |
| Literate without reading | People learned to write by copying dictation, not by reading texts |
Print Comes to India
When and how did print first come to India?
- Mid-16th century: Printing press arrived in Goa with Portuguese missionaries
- Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed tracts
- By 1674: About 50 books printed in Konkani and Kanara languages
What were the early printed books in South India?
- 1579: First Tamil book printed by Catholic priests at Cochin
- 1713: First Malayalam book printed by them
- By 1710: Dutch Protestant missionaries printed 32 Tamil texts, many translations of older works
When did English-language printing begin in India?
- English East India Company imported presses from late 17th century, but English press did not grow till late
- From 1780: James Augustus Hickey edited the Bengal Gazette
- A weekly magazine
- Called itself “a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none”
- Marked start of private English enterprise in printing
- Proud of independence from colonial influence
What did Hickey publish?
- Advertisements, including on import and sale of slaves
- Gossip about Company’s senior officials
- Enraged Governor-General Warren Hastings
- Hastings persecuted Hickey and promoted officially sanctioned newspapers to counter damaging information
What happened by the end of the 18th century?
- Many newspapers and journals appeared in print
- Indians also began publishing newspapers
- First Indian newspaper: Weekly Bengal Gazette by Gangadhar Bhattacharya
- He was close to Rammohun Roy
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Portuguese missionaries | Brought first printing press to Goa in mid-16th century |
| Jesuit priests | Printed tracts in Konkani after learning the language |
| Bengal Gazette (Hickey) | First private English weekly in India (1780), independent of colonial control |
| James Augustus Hickey | Editor who published ads and gossip, faced persecution |
| Warren Hastings | Governor-General who opposed Hickey and backed official newspapers |
| Officially sanctioned newspapers | Government-approved papers to control information flow |
| Gangadhar Bhattacharya | Published first Indian-run newspaper, close to Rammohun Roy |
| Tamil and Malayalam books | Early printed texts by Catholic and Dutch missionaries |
Religious Reform and Public Debates
What happened in religious debates
from the early 19th century?
- Intense debates on religious issues
- Groups offered new interpretations of religious beliefs
- Some criticised practices and campaigned for reform
- Others opposed reformers
- Debates happened in public and in print
How did print shape
these debates?
- Printed tracts and newspapers spread new ideas
- Shaped the nature of debate
- Wider public could participate and express views
- New ideas emerged from clashes of opinions
What were key issues
in Hindu reform debates?
- Widow immolation
- Monotheism
- Brahmanical priesthood
- Idolatry
- In Bengal, tracts and newspapers proliferated
- Ideas printed in everyday spoken language to reach wider audience
Which newspapers were part of Hindu debates?
- Rammohun Roy: published Sambad Kaumudi (from 1821)
- Hindu orthodoxy: commissioned Samachar Chandrika to oppose him
- 1822:
- Persian newspapers: Jam-i-Jahan Nama, Shamsul Akhbar
- Gujarati newspaper: Bombay Samachar
How did Muslims respond to colonial changes?
- Ulama feared collapse of Muslim dynasties
- Worried colonial rulers would:
- Encourage conversion
- Change Muslim personal laws
- Used cheap lithographic presses to:
- Print Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures
- Publish religious newspapers and tracts
What role did the
Deoband Seminary play?
- Founded – 1867
- Published thousands of fatwas
- Guided Muslims on everyday conduct
- Explained Islamic doctrines
- Many Muslim sects and seminaries emerged
- Each with different interpretation of faith
- Each tried to enlarge following and counter opponents
- Urdu print helped conduct these public battles
How did print affect Hindu religious reading?
- Encouraged reading of religious texts in vernaculars
- 1810: First printed edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas (Calcutta)
- Mid-19th century: Cheap lithographic editions flooded north India
- From 1880s:
- Naval Kishore Press (Lucknow)
- Shri Venkateshwar Press (Bombay)
- Published numerous religious texts in vernaculars
How were religious texts used?
- Printed and portable → read anywhere, anytime
- Could be read out to large groups of illiterate men and women
What was the overall impact of religious print?
- Religious texts reached wide circles
- Encouraged discussions, debates, controversies within and among religions
- Print stimulated conflicting opinions
- Also connected communities across India
- Newspapers carried news across regions → helped create pan-Indian identities
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Sambad Kaumudi | Newspaper by Rammohun Roy (1821) supporting reform |
| Samachar Chandrika | Orthodox Hindu newspaper opposing Roy |
| Lithographic presses | Cheap printing tech used for religious texts in Urdu/Persian |
| Deoband Seminary | Founded 1867; published fatwas guiding Muslim life |
| Fatwas | Religious rulings explaining Islamic conduct and doctrine |
| Ramcharitmanas | Tulsidas’s text; first printed in Calcutta (1810) |
| Vernacular religious texts | Scriptures printed in local languages for wider access |
| Pan-Indian identities | Shared sense of belonging created by newspapers across regions |
New Forms of Publication
What new kinds of writing did print encourage?
- People wanted to see their own lives, experiences, emotions, and relationships in print
- The novel (from Europe) met this need
- Soon acquired distinctively Indian forms and styles
- Opened new worlds of experience
- Showed diversity of human lives
What other literary forms became popular?
- Lyrics
- Short stories
- Essays on social and political matters
- All emphasized human lives, intimate feelings, and how social and political rules shaped them
What was the new visual
culture by the late 19th century?
- More printing presses → visual images reproduced in multiple copies
- Raja Ravi Varma made images for mass circulation
- Poor wood engravers set up shops near letterpresses
- Worked for print shops
How did cheap prints
affect everyday life?
- Cheap prints and calendars sold in bazaars
- Even poor people could buy them
- Used to decorate walls of homes and workplaces
- Shaped popular ideas about:
- Modernity and tradition
- Religion and politics
- Society and culture
What role did caricatures and cartoons play?
- Published in journals and newspapers from the 1870s
- Commented on social and political issues
- Some ridiculed educated Indians’ Western tastes and clothes
- Others showed fear of social change
- Imperial caricatures mocked nationalists
- Nationalist cartoons criticised imperial rule
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Novel | Literary form reflecting personal lives; became popular in Indian styles |
| Lyrics and short stories | New literary forms focusing on emotions and daily life |
| Raja Ravi Varma | Painter who created images for mass circulation via print |
| Cheap prints | Affordable images and calendars bought by the poor for decoration |
| Visual culture | Rise of widely shared printed images shaping public ideas |
| Wood engravers | Artisans making woodblocks near presses for print shops |
| Caricatures | Exaggerated drawings in print commenting on society and politics |
| Nationalist cartoons | Cartoons criticising British imperial rule |
Women and Print
How did print reflect women’s lives?
- Lives and feelings of women written in vivid and intense ways
- Women’s reading increased in middle-class homes
How did women gain access to education?
- Liberal husbands and fathers educated women at home
- Sent them to women’s schools (set up in cities/towns after mid-19th century)
- Journals carried:
- Writings by women
- Arguments why women should be educated
- Syllabus and reading material for home schooling
Why did some families oppose women’s literacy?
- Conservative Hindus: believed a literate girl would be widowed
- Muslims: feared educated women would be corrupted by Urdu romances
How did some women resist these restrictions?
- A girl in a conservative Muslim family (north India):
- Secretly learnt Urdu
- Wanted to read in her own language, not just Arabic Quran (which she didn’t understand)
- Rashsundari Debi (East Bengal, early 19th century):
- Learnt to read in secrecy in her kitchen
- Wrote Amar Jiban (1876) – first full-length Bengali autobiography
What did early women writers highlight?
- From 1860s: Kailashbashini Debi (Bengal) wrote on:
- Women imprisoned at home
- Kept in ignorance
- Forced into hard domestic labour
- Treated unjustly by family
- 1880s: Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai (Maharashtra):
- Wrote with passionate anger on miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows
What did a Tamil novel say about reading for women?
A woman said:
“For various reasons, my world is small … More than half my life’s happiness has come from books …”
How did Hindi print support women’s education?
- Hindi printing began seriously only from 1870s
- Large part devoted to education of women
- Early 20th century:
- Journals for and by women became extremely popular
- Topics: women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage, national movement
- Also offered household tips, fashion lessons, short stories, serialised novels
What was printed for women in Punjab?
- Early 20th century: folk literature widely printed
- Ram Chaddha: published Istri Dharm Vichar – taught women to be obedient wives
- Khalsa Tract Society: published cheap booklets with similar messages
- Many in form of dialogues on qualities of a good woman
What was special about Battala in Calcutta?
- Area in central Calcutta devoted to popular book printing
- Sold cheap editions of:
- Religious tracts and scriptures
- Obscene and scandalous literature
- By late 19th century: books profusely illustrated with woodcuts and coloured lithographs
- Pedlars took books to homes → women read in leisure time
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Amar Jiban | First full-length Bengali autobiography by Rashsundari Debi (1876) |
| Kailashbashini Debi | Early Bengali woman writer on women’s oppression at home |
| Tarabai Shinde | Marathi writer who critiqued upper-caste Hindu widowhood |
| Pandita Ramabai | Wrote on suffering of Hindu widows in Maharashtra |
| Battala | Calcutta hub for cheap, popular, and illustrated books |
| Istri Dharm Vichar | Punjabi booklet teaching women obedience (by Ram Chaddha) |
| Khalsa Tract Society | Published moral booklets for women in Punjab |
| Women’s journals | Early 20th-century Hindi magazines by/for women on social issues and entertainment |
Print and the Poor People
How did poor people access books in 19th-century Madras?
- Very cheap small books sold at crossroads in towns
- Bought by poor people travelling to markets
How did public libraries help?
- Set up from early 20th century
- Expanded access to books
- Located in cities, towns, and sometimes prosperous villages
- Rich patrons set up libraries to gain prestige
How was caste discrimination addressed in print?
- From late 19th century, printed tracts and essays wrote about caste injustice
- Jyotiba Phule: wrote Gulamgiri (1871) on injustices of caste system
- 20th century:
- B.R. Ambedkar (Maharashtra)
- E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar) (Madras)
- Both wrote powerfully on caste
- Read by people all over India
What role did local movements play?
- Local protest movements and sects created:
- Popular journals
- Tracts
- These criticised ancient scriptures and envisioned a new and just future
How did factory workers engage with print?
- Most were overworked and lacked education → wrote little
- Kashibaba (Kanpur millworker):
- Wrote Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938)
- Showed links between caste and class exploitation
- Sudarshan Chakr (pen name of another Kanpur worker):
- Wrote poems (1935–1955)
- Published as Sacchi Kavitayan
What did millworkers do to educate themselves?
- By 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries
- Followed example of Bombay workers
- Libraries sponsored by social reformers to:
- Restrict excessive drinking
- Promote literacy
- Sometimes spread nationalism
Important Keywords & Meanings
| Cheap small books | Affordable books sold at crossroads for poor buyers in Madras |
| Public libraries | Set up in 20th century; increased book access for common people |
| Gulamgiri (1871) | Book by Jyotiba Phule exposing caste injustices |
| Periyar | E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker; wrote against caste in Madras |
| Caste and class exploitation | Theme in Kashibaba’s writings linking social and economic oppression |
| Sacchi Kavitayan | Collection of poems by millworker Sudarshan Chakr |
| Worker libraries | Self-education spaces set up by millworkers in Bangalore and Bombay |
| Social reformers | Sponsored worker libraries to promote literacy and reduce drinking |
Print and Censorship
What was the early colonial attitude to censorship (1798)?
- East India Company not too concerned with censorship
- Early measures targeted Englishmen in India
- These Englishmen criticised Company misrule and hated Company officers
- Company feared such criticism would help critics in England attack its trade monopoly
What changed in the 1820s?
- Calcutta Supreme Court passed regulations to control press freedom
- Company began encouraging newspapers that celebrated British rule
What happened in 1835?
- Editors of English and vernacular newspapers sent urgent petitions
- Governor-General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws
- Thomas Macaulay (liberal official) made new rules that restored earlier freedoms
How did the 1857 revolt change press policy?
- Attitude to press freedom changed
- Enraged Englishmen demanded clamp down on ‘native’ press
- Vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist
- Colonial government debated stringent control measures
What was the Vernacular Press Act (1878)?
- Modelled on Irish Press Laws
- Gave government extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in vernacular press
- Government tracked vernacular newspapers in all provinces
- If a report was seditious:
- Newspaper got a warning
- If ignored: press seized, machinery confiscated
How did nationalists
respond to censorship?
- Nationalist newspapers grew in all parts of India
- Reported on colonial misrule
- Encouraged nationalist activities
- Repressive measures led to militant protests
- Created a cycle of persecution and protest
What happened to Balgangadhar Tilak?
- In 1907, wrote with sympathy about deported Punjab revolutionaries in Kesari
- Imprisoned in 1908
- Caused widespread protests across India
Important Keywords & Meanings
| East India Company | Initially censored only English critics to protect its trade monopoly |
| Vernacular Press Act (1878) | Law allowing censorship of Indian-language newspapers |
| Seditious | Content seen as encouraging rebellion against the government |
| Thomas Macaulay | Liberal official who restored press freedoms in 1835 |
| Kesari | Nationalist newspaper edited by Balgangadhar Tilak |
| Assertively nationalist | Vernacular press openly supporting Indian self-rule after 1857 |
| Confiscated machinery | Punishment for ignoring censorship warnings |
| Cycle of persecution and protest | Repression of press led to protests, which led to more repression |
FAQs: Print Culture and the Modern World Short Notes
Is print culture and Modern World coming in board exams?
Yes, “Print Culture and the Modern World” is a chapter in the CBSE Class 10 Social Science syllabus for the 2025-26 academic year and will be included in board exams.
How many marks are print culture and the modern world?
This is not fixed. But as per the cbse sample paper for 2025-2026 session it is for total of 2 Marks.
Why print culture and the modern world is important?
Bacuse it is a lengthy topic and out of 20 marks, may be 5 marks of questions can be asked.
Is the short notes sufficient?
The short notes is for revison and memorization. You need to understand the chapter.
Has everything covered in the above short notes? Can I rely on it?
Absolutely yes! We have taken due dilligence not leave any important concept or keyword
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