Print Culture and the Modern World

• Books, journals, newspapers, calendars, advertisements around us, are all examples of print. The print culture was started from East Asia and was spread to India and European countries.

The First Printed Books

• The print technology was primarily developed in China, Japan and Korea. In early days, prints were produced by writing. From AD 594, the books in China were printed by rubbing paper against an inked woodblock on which the words or symbols were carved i.e. cut in attractive shapes. As the paper was thin so both sides could not be used for printing. hence traditional Chinese ‘Accordion book’ was folded and sewed at the side. To copy these books a superbly skilled craftsmen having the art of beautiful and stylised writing i.e. calligraphy were used.
• For long time China was major producer of printed material. The recruitment in the China was based on Civil Services examination so large quantity of  books were printed. The volume of print was increased with the rising quantity of people giving civil services examination.
• By the Seventeenth century, with the growth of urbanisation in China the uses of print also diversified. Merchants used print for trade information. Fictional narrations, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies i.e. collection of poems and romantic plays began to be printed so it became a leisure activity to read these printed material.
• In the late the nineteenth century the western people introduced western printing techniques and mechanical press in the China. Shanghai became new center for western-print culture, it served for the need of western schools in China.

Print in Japan

• Around AD 768-770 the Buddhist Missionaries from China introduced Hand Printing in Japan. The first printed book is the ‘Diamond Sutra’ which was based on Buddhism. It contains six Sheets of text and Woodcut illustrations.
• Pictures were printed on cloths, playing cards and Paper Money. In middle age Japan poets and writers regularly published their books which were cheap and abundant.
• Printing of pictures emerged as interesting publishing practices. In the late eighteenth century, Urban culture was presented in printed paintings. These paintings had illustrations of Artists, Courtesans and Teahouse Gatherings. Printed books of various types such as books on Women, Musical Instruments, Calculations, Tea Ceremony, Flower Arrangement were flooded in the Libraries as well as in Bookstores.

Print Comes to Europe

• Paper Reached to Europe: Through the silk route, silk and spices were transported from China to Europe. With the same silk route, in the eleventh century chinese paper travelled to Europe which had given rise to writing manuscripts i.e. hand written material.
• Marco Polo Learned Woodblock Technique: Marco Polo, a great explorer spent many years in China and gained knowledge in many aspects like culture. He also learned about the woodblock printing technique. When he returned back to Italy in 1295, he introduced this technique to Italy. Italians started printing books with this technique.
• Growth of the Print culture: Later this printing technique spread to Europe. Luxury editions were handwritten on vellum i.e. a parchment made of animal skin and made specially for upper class people. These people felt printed books as cheap vulgarities. Merchants and students use the printed books.
• With the rise in demand for the books, booksellers started exporting books to different countries. They held book fairs for selling the books. Production of handwritten manuscripts were also improved. Wealthy people as well as booksellers employed skilled handwriters for writing books.
• Why woodblock technique got popularity: The books could not be produced in large quantity so as to meet the demand. Also the time and cost needed for copying was also more. These books were not easy to handle and could not be carried everywhere. Thus the circulation of handwritten books was limited. Thus to meet to growing demand of books, woodblock printing becomes popular.
• Woodblock printing was used in Europe for printing textile goods, playing cards, religious pictures etc. With woodblock printing it became simple to printing large copies with less efforts and cost.

Gutenberg and the Printing Press

• Invention of Printing Press: At Strasbourg, in Germany, Johann Gutenberg developed first printing press in 1430s. From childhood Gutenberg had seen olive and wine presses. He learned various arts such as polishing stones, making gold articles, lead moulding for making trinkets.
• He used this knowledge and modified existing technologies and made new invention i.e. a printing press.
• He used model of olive press for printing press, and moulds for making letters of alphabet. With continuous improvements he perfected the system by 1448.
• With this system the first book he printed was ‘Bible’. Though it took him three years to print 180 copies of the book but still it was the fastest production of that time.
• Impacts on skilled handwriters: The New printing technology did not displaced the art of handwriting. In fact, even if the printed books were closely resembled the handwritten books in terms of layout and appearance. Because the letters were moulded so as to get the shape of handwritten styles. Borders were often painted by hand. For that various patterns like foliage i.e. flowers and leaves were applied. Illustrations within a book also painted by hand. for the rich people often the space for decoration was kept blank so that they could hire a painter and paint the images according to them.
• Spread of Technology:
• From 1450 to 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries in Europe. printers from Germany started travelling to other countries for getting print related work or for introducing printing presses.
• During the second half of the fifteenth century about 20 million copies of the books were printed. The number increased to 200 million in the sixteenth century.

The Print Revolution and Its Impact

• With the invention of Printing Technology, hand printing gradually shifted to Mechanical printing this suggests “ Print Revolution”.
• Print revolution provided us new way of producing books. It helped people to gain and share information and knowledge. With this information people now could think in different directions.

A New Reading Public

• As printing reduced time and labour required to produce a book ultimately the cost of the books also reduced. Now the market became flooded with multiple copies of each book. Day by day sell of books increased suggesting that the new reading public had been emerged.
• Knowledge Transfer to Illiterates: With the easy availability of books, that too with lower cost created new culture of reading. Earlier, the book reading was limited to Elites i.e. Superior Group of People. Common people could not read the books but the knowledge of the books were spread by loud readings.
• Intermixing of Hearing Public with Reading Public
• The major problem was, for reading one must be literate. and till twentieth century the literates in European countries were very few. So Publishers used the method of loud reading.especially in villages and in Taverns where people gather and listen the readings collectively. Printers began publishing popular Folk Tales and Ballads. Many times they printed books that were mostly illustrated with pictures. This suggests that Oral Culture entered the print culture and print material was Published Orally. Thus the hearing public and reading public intermixed with each other.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

• Print enabled sharing of ideas. So now people could print their ideas and persuade people to think in specified direction. By which it became possible to gather all people for a combined action such as a movement. Which means, print technology, gave rise to new world of debate and discussion.
• Opposition to the Printing Technology:
• The new way of printing was not welcomed by everyone. Some feared that if there were no control over what was printed then it could spread bad thoughts in people’s minds and could led to rebel. Many religious authorities, monarchs, writers and artists, shown their anxiety against the print culture as a result the print culture had faced widespread opposition.
• Impact of Print revolution on Religion

• In 1517, a religious reformer, Martin Luther wrote “Ninety Five Theses” in which he criticised the practices and rituals i.e. series of actions in a religious activity of Roman Catholic Church. A printed copy of the book was posted on the door of the church in Wittenberg challenging the church to debate its ideas.
• Luther’s writings were printed extensively and spread all over which created awareness among the individuals. The Church itself divided into two groups one that believes traditional practices while other believing in Luther’s writings. Thus the new Protestant Reformation i.e. movement to reform the Catholic Church was raised under the leadership of Martin Luther.
• The sell of Martin Luther’s writing increased day by day and thus second edition was produced just within three months.
• Luther addressed the print technology as “Printing is the ultimate gift of the God and the greatest one.”

Print and Dissent

• The print and popular religious literature enabled the group of little-educated workers to understand different interpretations of faith. Take the case of Menocchio a miller in Italy. He read the books available in the locality. He interpreted the message from the books with the message in the Bible. With his interpretations he formulated anti-religious beliefs because of which the Roman Catholic Church became angry. When the church started repressing the ideas that were raised against the church then Menocchio was caught and ultimately killed. The church also imposed severe control over publishers and booksellers that involve in spreading messages opposite to the church. The church also started maintaining an Index of Prohibited books from 1558.

The Reading Mania

Introduction of new technological inventions in printing technology also increased the reading mania i.e. reading hobby.

Rise of Reading Mania

• Set up of Schools: During seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the literacy rate was raised in Europe. Churches belonging to different sub-religious groups set up schools in villages. They also carried out activities so as to spread literacy among peasants and artisans. As a result till eighteenth century, the literacy rates in Europe was grown to 60% to 80%.
• Increased production of Books: With the growing literacy and increasing schools in European countries the reading mania also increased in people. To meet the demand of the prints, printers continuously increased the production of the books.
• Marketing: The publishers targeted different types of audiences and produced books according to them. Many times booksellers employ people to roam in the villages to sell smaller books. These includes
• Almanacs i.e. annual publications giving information about astronomical data, movements of sun and moon, timings of the eclipse and full tides.
• Ballads i.e. a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas and
• Folktales i.e. cultural stories that were usually narrated by spoken languages.
• Chapbooks i.e. pocket sized books sold by travelling peddlers i.e. chapman especially after print revolution. these books were sold for just one penney. Therefore these books could be purchased by poor people too.
• Bibliotheque Bleue: was a small, low priced book published in France. Usually it was printed on low quality paper and covered with cheap blue covers.
• Other books: There were other books such as romances printed on 4 to 6 pages, ‘Histories’ i.e. stories about the past.
• Development of periodical press: From the eighteenth century with the development of periodical press people started publishing current affairs and entertainment. Newspapers and Journals publishes information about the ongoing wars and trade and news of developments in other countries.
• Information Sharing: In addition to this now scientists and philosophers could easily convey their ideas to common people. Many times ancient time and middle age time texts were reproduced in current languages and published. Maps and scientific diagrams were printed and distributed.
• Scientifically minded readers prefers to read scientific news and articles. After Isaac Newton started publishing his discoveries the reading mania was greatly influenced.
• Thinkers like Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau published their ideas based on science, reason and rationality became popular in the public readings.

Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world!’

• As the awareness among the people could bring Revolutionary Changes this suggests Bad time for the bad people.
• World revolution possible by books: By the mid-eighteenth century books people started believing that progress and knowledge(dnyan) could be possible only with books. They believe that books could bring revolution in the world. It could form liberate society where people could live with personal freedom.
• Mercier: A Novelist, Louis-Sebastien Mercier declared that “printing press is the most powerful engine of progress, and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism i.e. cruel and oppressive government, away.”  
• Mercier in his novels shown that the minds of heros get changed because of reading books. Mercier, feeling the power of print for bringing awareness against Despotism, announces “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’

Print Culture and the French Revolution

• Historians believes that print culture was responsible for French revolution. Usually three types of arguments were put forward.
• Popularising the Ideas of Thinkers: Thinkers on their writings opposed Tradition, Superstition and Despotism and encouraged reasonable government. They demanded that, judging should be based on reason(mark) and Rationality(equality).they weakened the Traditional social system(old) by opposing traditional Church authority for Holy practices and the despotic power of state. Of those Great thinkers and writers, most famous were Voltaire ( image)and Rousseau(image). Reading such types of books people started looking the world with critical and rational thinking(thinking).
• New Culture of Dialogue and Debate: Because of print culture people started debating and re-evaluating the issues such as values, norms and institutions. They realised the need of questioning the existing ideas and beliefs. As a result new ideas of social revolution came into existence.
• Criticising Royalty and its morality: By the 1780s very large number of books were written criticising the royalty and its morality. The books raised issues and questions about the traditional social system. There were cartoons and caricatures presented in books mentioning that the monarchy remained in pleasure even if common people suffered immense hardship. Thus people started opposing the monarchy.
• What we understand: From these arguments we understand that people read books and Interpret the ideas with their own way. They accept ,some ideas ,and, reject others. This suggests ,that ,print , provides, basis of, thinking differently.

The Nineteenth Century

In the nineteenth century, Europe got large number of new readers consisting of children, women, workers.

Children, women and workers:

• Story books for Children:
• Grimm Brothers collected traditional folk tales from peasants in Germany, created stories published these stories in a collection in 1812. The published versions skip the content which seems vulgar to the elites.
• In the late nineteenth century, primary education became compulsory. So now new group of readers emerged i.e. children. Every publishing industry started publishing school textbooks. In france in 1857, a children’s press was established for printing literature for children alone. With which the press published new as well as old fairy tales and folktales.
• Penney Magazines for Women:
• In the literature, women’s contributed both as readers as well as writers. Penney magazines were especially printed for women. These magazines teach proper behavior and housekeeping to women.
• When novels began to be written then women such as Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot contributed in the writing. Their writings defined new type of women i.e. having will power, great personality, strong determination and power to think.\
• Literature for Worker: From seventeenth century Lending Libraries were lending books to the working class people. So the library became the source of knowledge for white-collar workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people. These people wrote large number of books on political tracts and autobiographies.

Future Innovations

• Initially printing was done using woodblock technique. By the late eighteenth century metal was used for printing. By mid-nineteenth-century Richard M. Hoe of New York invented power driven cylindrical press which was capable of printing 8000 sheets per hour. It was used particularly for printing newspapers. In late nineteenth century offset press was developed that could print six colours at a time. The beginning of twentieth century was marked with rise of electrical press. Methods of feeding the paper was improved, plate quality became better, new technologies such as automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls were introduced. Mechanical improvements improved the quality of print.
• with the quality of print, the quality of literature also improved. Publishers developed new ways of selling their product. Important novels were serialised giving rise to particular way of writing novels. In 1920s in England popular books started selling in Shilling Series i.e. cheap series. Dust cover was invented in twentieth century only. To sustain the sell, during Great Depression in the 1930s, the publishers produce paperback editions.

India and the world of Print

Manuscripts Before the Age of print

• In India from old times people written handwritten manuscripts in variety of languages such as Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian. These were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper. Sometimes beautiful paintings were done on the pages. The pages were covered with wooden covers. For preserving the pages they were sewn together. These practices of producing books were continued till late nineteenth century.
• Manuscripts were highly expensive and easily breakable so these need to be handled carefully. The reading was also difficult as these were written in different styles. Thus the books were not widely read in everyday life. Teachers of the primary schools in Bengal teach his students based on his memories and students used to write what teacher teach them.

Print Comes to India

• In India the printing press first brought by Portuguese missionaries in mid sixteenth century in Goa. The Jesuit priests learnt the Konkani language and published many books. Till 1674 about 50 books were printed in the Konkani and the Kanara languages.
• Catholic Priests printed first Tamil book in Cochin in 1579. In 1713 they printed first Malayalam book.
• In 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries printed about 32 Tamil books out of which many were translations of older books.
• The english printing in India started From 1780. James Augustus Hickey started publishing weekly english magazine ‘Bengal Gazette’. He described it as ‘a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’. In this magazine, Hickey published many advertisements e.g. those related to import and sale of slaves. He also published the gossip about the East India Company’s senior officials in India. Angry governor-general Warren Hasting banned Hickey from publishing and allowed only those which would not damage the image of the company.
• By the eighteenth century many newspapers and journals were started appearing. Some of them were Indian too e.g. Bengal Gazette by Gangadhar Bhattacharya.
• Which of the following governor general banned Hickey from publishing the writings against the East India Company?

Religious Reform and Public Debate

• Introduction:
• From the beginning of of nineteenth century there were Debates among different Religious Groups in India. Different Religious Groups expressing the opposition to the social changes in their own ways. Some Social Reformers demanded reformation in existing practices. The debates between the two were presented in public as well as in print. Print helped in spreading new thoughts and to get wider public support for any public issues.
• Debate In Hindus:
• It was a time during which there were debates of Social and Religious Reformers with the Hindu orthodoxy i.e. traditional beliefs on the basis of issues like widow immolation, Monotheism i.e. the belief that there is one god, Brahmanical Priesthood and Idolatry i.e. Worship of Idols.The debate reached to Greater Audience with the help of print. Most of the time these debates were published in Various Languages.
• In 1821, Rammohan Roy published ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ to express new thoughts. Against which Hindu orthodoxy published ‘Samachar Chandrika’.
• From 1822, two persian newspapers were published which were ‘Jam-i-Jahan Nama’ and ‘Shamsul Akhbar’. Also in Gujarat ‘Bombay Samachar’ newspaper was published.
• Debate in Muslims: In North India the ‘Ulama’ who are (Muslim Authority People) were worried about the collapse of Muslim Dynasties. They were feared as they did not want conversion and change in Muslim personal laws. Thus they published Persian and Urdu translations of Holy Scriptures and also printed newspapers.
• In 1867, Deoband Seminary was formed which published thousands of ‘Fatwas’. A Fatwa is a Legal Opinion on any issue which was issued by Mufti. During nineteenth century different Muslim groups were emerged each having slightly different thinking about the Religion and Seminaries. The motive of each was to enlarge their followings and reduce the influence of competing religion. For that they used Urdu print to bring the conflicts into the public.
• Hindus: Print also encouraged the Religious Publications for Hindu especially in Different Spoken Languages. At first the ‘Ramcharitmanas’ of Tulsidas was printed in Calcutta in 1810. From 1880’s Naval Kishore Press in Lucknow and Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published many books in different languages. these books could be taken to anywhere and could be read to any time also these books could be Narrated Loudly to large group of people. Print not only encouraged Discussion, Debates and Controversies within and among different religion but It also connected Different Groups and Communities of India.

New Forms of Publication

• Readers Expectations: With the increasing number of readers, the demand for printing also increased. The readers were expecting to see their own lives and experiences, emotions and relations in the readings. Thus novel writing was introduced in India as novels could fulfill all these demands. Novel writing was modified to suit Indian culture and styles. Thus now readers got new variety in writing.
• New Forms of Literature: Other forms of literature like Lyrics, Short Stories, Essays about social and political matter also came into existence. They focused on human lives and intimate feelings and, political and social rules which were responsible for those.
• Paintings in Print: By the end of nineteenth century, large number of Printing Presses were established. The print introduced visual culture to the people. i.e. publishers started publishing visual images in multiple copies. During this time, painters like Raja Ravi Varma was famous painter who painted images for mass circulation. Poor people who survive on woodblock printing set up their shops near letterpresses and got employed by print shops.
• Print spread Ideas: Cheap prints and calendars were purchased by even the common people. They started decorating their homes with these prints. These prints started conveying the ideas of modernity and tradition, religion and politics and society and culture.
• Cartoons in Print: By 1870s, prints started printing cartoons in the journals and newspapers. Through these publishers started commenting on social and political issues.
• Caricatures in Print: Caricatures means a person’s presentation in comic way. E.g. some caricatures of indian people, wearing western clothes and having western thoughts were made for making fun of educated Indians.
• Through imperial caricatures and nationalist caricatures, the rulers and nationalists often criticised each other.

Women and the Print

• Print started publishing the lives and feeling of women demanding public attention to the social issue i.e. women’s education.
• Women’s Education:
• Liberal Families: As the awareness spread, people allowed women to read. Liberal husbands and fathers started educating women of their families in homes. When schools were opened then they allowed women to learn. Educated women also contributed in literature and spread the awareness about women’s education. Prints also provided suitable reading matter for home based schooling.
• Narrow-minded families: Not all families or people were liberal. e.g. Conservative Hindus were believing that education to the girl could make her widow. Muslim were believing that by reading Urdu romances muslim women would be corrupted.
• Reading Secretly: Even under such prohibition some women managed to read. For instance, In a muslim family a girl was allowed read only Arabic Quran which she did not understand that. So she started reading and writing in Urdu secretly. Similarly in East Bengal, Rashsundari Debi after her marriage in orthodox family i.e a family believing traditional religious practices. Even if she was not allowed to read, she started reading books in her kitchen secretly. Later she wrote autobiography ‘Amar Jiban’ in Bengali language which was published in 1876.   
• Books on Women’s Lives:
• Books by women: From 1860s, women started writing autobiographies. Kashibai Debi in her books highlighted experiences of the women e.g. how homes were prison for women, how women were ignored, how these were forced to do domestic work, how women were treated unjustly in the society. In 1880s Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai from Maharashtra shown their anger on miserable life of upper caste hindu women especially widows. In a Tamil Novel written by Tamil women the regulations laid by society on women were greatly opposed.
• Beginning of Hindi Prints: From 1870s Hindi Prints came into existence. Most of them were based on women education. Some journals which raised issues such as women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement became widely popular. Some offered household and fashion lessons. Some brought entertainment by presenting stories and serialised novels.
• Print In Punjab: In Early twentieth century folk literature was widely published in Punjab. Ram Chaddha published Istri Dharm Vichar in which he presented lessons for women to become obedient wives. The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with the same topic.
• Print in Bengal: In Bengal many books were printed in central Calcutta i.e. Battala area. Here wide variety of books were present such as religious books and scriptures and also the obscene i.e. dirty and scandalous i.e. intolerable. By the nineteenth century paintings appeared in the books.

Print and The poor People

In the nineteenth century large number of books at cheap prices were sold in Madras towns. Because of the cheaper prices these books were purchased by poor people too.

Libraries: Setting up of library was a way of getting prestige so from twentieth century many rich people set up public libraries in Cities, Town, and sometimes in Villages too. Because of libraries now poor people got easy access to books.

Books on Caste Discrimination: From  nineteenth century people started publishing issues of caste discrimination to create awareness. Jyotiba Phule is known as Maratha Pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements. He published ‘Gulamgiri’ in 1871 in which he wrote about the Injustice of the Caste System. B. R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras wrote about the same topic i.e. caste discrimination. Such books were read by people in all over India. Local Protest movements also written many Journals and Tracts and strongly opposed the Ancient Scriptures and demanded equality.

Workers: Workers work for hours in factories and these were illiterate so these could not be able to write their experiences. But there were some workers who managed to do so. In Kanpur a millworker, Kashibaba wrote and published ‘Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal’ in 1938 in which he showed the Relation between caste and caste exploitation. Another Kanpur millworker wrote poems under the name Sudarshan Chakr and published these poems with the name ‘Sacchi Kavitayen’.

Work of Social Reformers: The Social Reformers were willing to Educate the Workers and restrict their excessive drinking habit so as to spread feeling of nationalism. They financially helped the Cotton Mill Workers from Bombay and Bangalore to set up libraries so as to educate themselves.

Print and Censorship

• Introduction: The East India company was not worried about the print till 1798. But as the few british critical thinkers began to write against company’s misrule and bad behaviour of officials so company decided to suppress these by controlling the print.
• Start of Censorship: The company was feared from the fact that when these writing spread in London then the critical thinkers in London may raise issues against company’s monopoly in India. So, Company started censorship i.e. examining the books and suppressing the unacceptable parts.

• Removal of Press Freedom: Calcutta supreme court passed few regulations to control the freedom of press. Thus newspapers were left with no choice other than to praise the British rule.
• Freedom to Press: In 1835, editors of english and native language newspapers made petitions i.e. written requests to the Governor-General Bentinck. Bentinck agreed to revise the press laws. As a result Thomas Macaulay who was a liberal colonial official restored the press freedom.
• Vernacular Press Act: After the revolt of 1857, again the british colonials demanded to place control over the ‘native’ press. Their demand became stronger as newspapers started publishing more and more on nationalism. So in 1878, Vernacular Press Act was passed, with which the colonial government got the right to censor the content. I.e. now government could track different vernacular i.e. native language, newspapers. If government found any report against the government then the press was warned and in case of ignorance the press was banned from publishing.
• Nationalist  Newspapers: Despite of different controls laid on the nationalist newspapers, but still these were grown in all parts of India. These newspapers highlighted the misrule of the colonial government and encouraged nationalist activities in India. Even if government attempted to control the press people opposed such controls by militant protests. In 1907, when Punjab revolutionaries were deported, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote about them in ‘Kesari’ with great sympathy. Because of which he was kept in prison in 1908 as government was fearing from possibility of widespread protest throughout India.