Print culture and the modern world

Early history of printing

The earliest printing techniques were developed in China, Japan and Korea in the
second century AD. The Chinese thought of carving raised characters on a block of
wood wetting them with ink and pressing a sheet of paper against them until the
characters were printed on the paper. The oldest printed book in existence is the
Diamond Sutra dates from the years 868 AD. (Buddhist religious book)

Invention of movable type of printing letters\ Gutenberg press

The first printing press was set up in Germany by Gutenberg in 1448. He developed
metal types for each 26 characters of the Roman alphabet. Gutenberg’s revolutionary
Idea was to use metal to cast each letter individually as a piece of “type” so that a
number of individual pieces or letters would be fitted together to make up a word,
sentence, paragraph and eventually an entire text or book. Once the printing had been
finished the type could be broken up from its setting and reused to print another book.
The first printed book with the new system was the Bible.

India and the World of Print

Manuscripts Before the Age of Print
India is a country rich in old tradition of handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, as
well as in various vernacular languages. These handwritten manuscripts were copied on palm
leaves or on handmade paper. The production of the manuscript continued well after the introduction
of print. It is considered highly expensive and fragile. In Bengal, students were only taught to write
due to which many became literate without ever actually reading any kinds of texts.

Print Comes to India

In the mid-sixteenth century, the first printing press came to Goa with Portuguese
missionaries. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713
the first Malayalam book was printed by them. The English press grew quite late in India
even though the English East India Company began to import presses from the late
seventeenth century. The modern printing press was established in India by the British.
The pioneer of the press in India was James Augustus Hickey. In 1780 he published his
weekly known as the Bengal gazette. This was the first newspaper in India. The
newspaper became so popular in a short period that many newspapers of this kind
appeared in India.
Print and Censorship\ The Vernacular Press Act 1878
In 1876 Lord Lytton became the governor general of India. He was determined to
impose several restrictions on the Vernacular Press. In 1878 he passed the Vernacular
Press Act. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and
editorials in the Vernacular Press, but when liberal government came in power Lord
Lytton was call back in Britain and Lord Rippon was appointed as governor general of
India and he replaced the Vernacular Press Act in 1880.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

Religious issues became intense from the early nineteenth century. People started
criticizing existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the
arguments of reformers. Printed tracts and newspapers spread new ideas and shaped
the nature of the debate. New ideas emerged and intense controversies erupted
between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow
immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. In 1821, Rammohun
Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi. In 1822, two Persian newspapers published Jam-
i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar. In the same year, a Gujarati newspaper, the
Bombay Samachar, was established. The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867,
published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct
themselves in their everyday lives and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines.
Print encouraged the reading of religious texts, among Hindus, especially in the
vernacular languages. Religious texts reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging
discussions, debates and controversies within and among different religions.
Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

Print introduced a new world of debate and discussion. Printed books are not welcomed
by everyone and many were apprehensive of the effects that the wider circulation of
books could have on people’s minds. There was a fear of spreading rebellious and
irreligious thoughts. In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five
Theses, criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. His
textbook printed copy led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the
Protestant Reformation.

Women and Print

Women’s reading increased enormously in middle-class homes. Schools were set up in
cities for women. Journals also started carrying writings by women and explained why
women should be educated. But, Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would
be widowed and 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. In the early twentieth century, journals, written and edited by women, became
extremely popular. In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta – the Battala – was
devoted to the printing of popular books. By the late nineteenth century, a lot of these
books were profusely illustrated with woodcuts and coloured lithographs. Pedlars took
the Battala publications to homes, enabling women to read them in their leisure time.

Print and the Poor People

Cheap books were bought at markets. Public libraries were set up mostly located in
cities and towns. In the late 19th century, caste discrimination started coming up in
many printed tracts and essays. Factory workers lacked education to write much about
their experience. In 1938, Kashibaba wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal
in 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation. In the 1930s, Bangalore
cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves.

Contribution of print to the spread of knowledge

The invention of print has greatly contributed to the spread of knowledge, without this
invention all the progress that we see today simply could not have been possible. The
contribution of print can be highlighted as follows.
1- Without invention of the new print technology the quicker and economical
reproduction of text could never had been made possible.
2- Printing reduce the cost of books to a great extent and as a result books could
reach out to wider sections of the society.
3- The time of labour required to produce each book came down which resulted in
flooding the market with books.
4- Printing led to the rise of literacy rate in almost all the countries of the world.
5- Now, everybody could have access to the ideas of scientist and philosophers.
The writing of the great thinkers completely revolutionised the minds of the
people.

Print and growth of nationalism

Print culture assisted the growth of Nationalism in India in the following ways.
1- Through the Vernacular Press the exploitative methods of colonial government
were reported.
2- Revolutionary ideas were also secretly spread by the print culture.
3- National newspapers worked to mobilize public opinion of Indian masses.
4- It became easier for the social reformers to spread their opinions through
newspapers which sparked off public debates.
5- The common people begin questioning the authority through the newspaper.