Print Culture & The Modern World

The First Printed Books – China From 594 AD onwards, books were printed in China by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks. The traditional Chinese ‘Accordion Book’ was folded and stitched at the side because both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed. The imperial state of China sponsored the large scale printing of textbooks for Civil Service examination. The number of candidates for the examinations increased from the 16th century, and this increased the volume of print. By the 17th century, the use of print diversified. Merchants used print in day-to-day life because they collected trade related information. Fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies & romantic plays became the staple for the reading public.

The First Printed Books – Japan The Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around 768 – 770 AD. The Buddhist Diamond Sutra which was printed in 868 AD was the oldest Japanese book. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money. Libraries and bookstores were packed with hand- printed materials of various types like books on women, musical instruments, calculations, tea ceremony, flower arrangements, proper etiquette, cooking and famous places.

The Buddhist Diamond Sutra

Print Comes to Europe In 1295, Marco polo, a great explorer returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China. He brought the knowledge of print technology back with him from China. Thus, printing began in Italy and travelled to other parts of Europe. Vellum was still the preferred material for printing the luxury editions because printed books were considered as cheap vulgarities. Luxury editions were handwritten on very expensive vellum meant for aristocratic people and rich monastic libraries. By the early 15th century, woodblocks were widely used in Europe to print various materials.

Vellum Printing

Increase in demand for books As the demand for books increased, the book-sellers of Europe began exporting books to many countries. Book fairs were held at different places. Production of handwritten manuscripts was also organized in new ways to meet the expanded demand. Book sellers started employing Scribes. Handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever- increasing demands for books. With increase in demand for books, woodwork printing gradually became more & more popular.

Woodblock Printing The woodblock printing was widely used in Europe to print textiles, religious pictures, texts & playing cards.

Gutenberg & the Printing Press

Gutenberg & the Printing Press Johannes Gutenberg Gutenberg Bible

The Print revolution & its impact With the print technology, a new reading public emerged. Books became cheaper because of printing. Numerous copies could now be produced with much ease. This helped in catering to an ever growing readership. Access to books increased for the public. This helped in creating a new culture of reading. Popular ballads and folk tales were published which could be listened by even the illiterates. People started to enjoy listening to books.

Religion & Print Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate and discussion. Those who disagreed with the established authorities could now print & circulate their ideas. For the orthodox people, it was like a challenge as they feared the disturbance in old order. the Protestant Revolution in Christianity began because of print culture. The Roman Church started to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

The Reading Mania The literacy levels improved through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe. Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages. Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages to sell books. Periodicals, novels, almanac, etc. formed the staple for the reading mania. Ideas of scientists and philosophers became more accessible to the common people.

Print Culture & the French Revolution Many historians are of the view that print culture created the conditions which led to French Revolution. Print popularized the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers. These thinkers gave critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. General public began to discuss the values, norms and institutions and tried to re- evaluate the established notions. By the 1780s, there was a surge in literature which mocked the royalty and criticized their morality.

The 19th century – Children & Print Primary education became compulsory from 19th century. Children’s Press was set up in France. Old fairy tales & folk tales were published. The Grim brothers in Germany compiled tales of peasants. The stories were edited before they were published in 1812. Any material that was not suitable to Children was not part of the final publication. Rural folk tales acquired a new form. Print recorded old tales but also changed them

Women, Workers & Print Women became important readers & writers. Penny magazines were published for women. In the 19th century, novels began to be written & women were seen as important readers. Some of the well known women writers were Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Elliot. The writings defined new type of women : a person with will, strength of personality, determination & the power to think. The lending libraries which had been in existence from the 17th century became the hub of activity for white-collar workers, artisans and lower middle class people.

Further Innovations Richard M. Hoe of New York perfected the power- driven cylindrical press by the mid 19th century. Offset press was developed in the late 19th century. Electrically operated presses came in use from the turn of the 20th century. Methods of feeding paper improved, quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels & photoelectric controls of the color register were introduced. The 19th century periodicals serialized important novels.

Power-driven Cylindrical Press

New Strategies to sell books Many periodicals serialized important novels in the nineteenth century. In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling Series. The dust cover or book jacket is a twentieth century innovation. Cheap paperback editions were brought to counter the effect of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

India and the World of Print The Portuguese missionaries were the first to bring printing press to Goa in the mid 16th century. The first books were printed in Konkani language. By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in Konkani and Kanara Languages. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin. They printed the first Malayalam book in 1713. By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many of them translations of older works. From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette.

Pages from the Rig-Veda Handwritten manuscripts continued to be produced in India till much after the coming of print. This manuscript was produced in the eighteenth century in the Malayalam script.

Religious Reforms & Public Debates Role of the Newspapers: Many existing religious practices were criticized. Ram Mohun Roy published Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 to criticize the orthodox views in the Hinduism. The Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to counter his opinions. In 1822, publication of two Persian newspapers began, viz. Jam-i-Jahan-Nama & Shamsul Akhbar. Bombay Samachar; a Gujarati newspaper appeared in the same year.

Religious Reforms & Public Debates Views of the Muslim Sects: In north India, the ulama began to publish cheap lithographic prints which contained Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures. They also published religious newspapers and tracts. The Deoband Seminary was founded in 1867. It published thousands of fatwas about proper conduct in the life of Muslims.

Religious Reforms & Public Debates Role of religious text in Debates: Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas was printed from Calcutta in 1810. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published many religious texts in vernaculars.

Bengal Gazette

New Forms of Publication Initially, people got to read the novels which were written by European writers. But people could not relate to those novels because they were written in the European context. Many other new forms of writing also came into origin; like lyrics, short stories, essays about social and political matters, etc. A new visual culture was taking shape by the end of the nineteenth century. Many printing presses started to produce visual images in large numbers. By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers. They commented on various social and political issues.

Raja Ravi Varma

Women & Print Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home, and 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. Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.

Rashsundari Debi

Tarabai Shinde Pandita Ramabai

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein

Print and the Poor People Very cheap small books were brought to markets in nineteenth-century Madras towns. Public libraries were set up from the early twentieth century, expanding the access to books. These libraries were located mostly in cities and towns. Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871). B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras wrote on caste system. Local protest movements and sects also created a lot of popular journals and tracts criticising ancient scriptures and envisioning a new and just future.

Print and the Poor People Workers in factories were too overworked & lacked the education to write much. Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote & published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938. Poems of another Kanpur millworker, were brought together & published in a collection called Sacchi Kavitayan. By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves. Social reformers tried to restrict excessive drinking among the workers, to bring literacy & to propagate the message of nationalism.

Print and Censorship Initially, the control measures were directed against Englishmen in India who were critical of Company misrule. By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to control press freedom. The Company began encouraging publication of newspapers that would celebrate Britsh rule. The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878. The Act provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Balgangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his Kesari