NCERT Solutions for Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 5 Print Culture and the Modern World

Ans : People feared that the development of print could lead to the growth of dissenting ideas because print and popular literature encouraged many distinctive interpretations of religious faith and ideas. Manocchio gave a new interpretation of the Bible and formulated a view of God and creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church. As a result he was hauled up twice and ultimately executed when the Roman Church began its inquisition and to repress heretical ideas. 

Ans : Some historians think that print culture created the basis for the French Revolution because   
(i) Printing of the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau led to them being read by many people. As these writers attacked the despotic rulers and the authority of the Church, the readers saw the world through eyes that were questioning, critical and rational.   
(ii) Print spawned a dialogue and debate culture in which all institutions, norms and values were discussed and re-evaluated.   
(iii) By the 1780s, a lot of literature criticizing and mocking the royalty.The underground circulation of such literature increased hostile sentiments against the monarchy. 

Ans : (a) Woodblock print was invented around the sixth century in China. It came to Europe, along with Marco Polo, in 1295. Marco Polo returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China, and he brought the knowledge of woodblock print with him on his return. 


(b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it because print media helped popularise and spread his ideas. In 1517, he wrote the Ninety Five Theses, criticising the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. These writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. His translation of the New Testament was also accepted and read by thousands. This was only possible due to the improvements in print technology which had allowed even the working classes to gain access to books. 


(c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an index of Prohibited books from the mid- sixteenth century because its authority was being put in danger by the several individual and distinctive readings and questionings of faith prompted by the easily accessible popular religious literature. To supplement its inquisition and repression of heretical ideas, the Roman Catholic Church exercised strict control over publishers and booksellers, and also began to keep an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558. 


(d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association because he considered these to be powerful modes of expression and cultivation of public opinion. The denial of these freedoms was not compatible with the idea of self rule and independence. Hence, the fight for these freedoms, according to him, was intrinsically a fight for Swaraj or self rule. 

Ans : (a) The Gutenberg Press: It was established by Johann Gutenberg. By 1448, he had perfected the system of printing with olive and wine presses, using contemporary technological innovations. The first book that he printed was the Bible, making 180 copies in 3 years. Although these books were printed, a unique touch remained in the handmade decorations of the front page, illuminated borders and purchaser-specified designs. The Gutenberg Press was the first-known printing press in the 1430s. 


(b) Erasmus's idea of the printed book: He was critical of the print medium. He believed that though some books do provide worthwhile knowledge, others are simply a bane for scholarship. Erasmus accused printers of publishing books that were not mere trifling but "stupid,slanderous, scandalous, raving, irreligious and seditious". He also felt that large numbers of such books reduce the value of the quality writings.


(c) The Vernacular Press Act: Modelled on the Irish Press Laws, it was passed in 1878. This law gave the government tyrannical rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. If a seditious report was published and the newspaper did not heed to an initial warning, then the press was seized and the printing machinery confiscated. This was a complete violation of the freedom of expression. 

Ans : (a) Women: 
The spread of print culture in nineteenth-century India brought about educational reforms for women. Liberal husbands and fathers educated their womenfolk at home or sent them to schools for women. Women who had been restricted to a domestic life for generations, now found a new medium of entertainment. They also began to write articles for journals, in favour of women's education and literacy. Some even wrote books; Rassundari Devi's autobiography "Amar Jiban" was the first full-length autobiography, published in 1876. Conservatives believed that education and reading would make women widows, or corrupt them. Many women learnt to read and write in secret in such traditionalist environments.


(b) The poor: 
They benefited from the spread of print culture in India on account of the availability of low- price books and public libraries. Enlightening essays were written against caste discrimination and its inherent injustices. These were read by people across the country. On the encouragement and support of social reformers, overworked factory workers set up libraries for self-education, and some of them even published their own works, for example, Kashi Baba and his "Chhote Aur Bade Sawal". 


(c) Reformers: 
Print culture's popularity was an advantage for social and religious reformers as they could now spread their opinions, through newspapers and books, across the masses. These ideas could then be debated upon by different groups of people. Reformist ideas were put forward in the local, everyday languages of the common people so as to create a wider platform for the same.