THE FIRST PRINTED BOOKS:

● China had a lead in papermaking and printing from ancient times. Japan and
Korea were not far behind. The earliest kind of print technology was developed in
China, Japan and Korea.
● From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper – also
invented
● there – against the inked surface of woodblocks.
● As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional
Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side.
● Production of printed material was under the imperial state in China for a long
time. China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel
through civil service examination.
● Development of urban culture in China by the 17th century helped print style to
diversify. Print was no longer used just by scholar-officials. Merchants used print
in their everyday life, as they collected trade information.
● The advent of new technology in printing helped in a new reading culture in
Europe. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in
the late nineteenth century as Western powers established their outposts in
China.

Print Culture of Japan:

(I) Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand printing technology into Japan
around AD 768 - 770.

(ii) The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra,
containing ix sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.

(iii) Pictures were printed on Playing cards, paper money and textile products.

(iv) In medieval Japan, the works of poets and prose writers were regularly published
and books were cheap and abundant.

(v) In the late 18th century, in the flourishing urban circles at Edo (later to be known as
Tokyo), illustrated collections of paintings depicted an elegant urban culture, involving
artists, courtesans and teahouse gatherings.

Print Comes To Europe

1. For centuries, silk and spices from China flowed into Europe through the silk
route. In the eleventh century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the same
route.
2. Paper made possible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes.
3. In 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer, returned to Italy after many years of
exploration in China.
4. He brought the knowledge of printing technology back with him.
 5. Now Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology
spread to other parts of Europe.
6. Luxury editions were still handwritten on very expensive vellum, meant for
aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries which scoffed at printed books as
cheap vulgarities.
7. Merchants and students in the university towns bought the cheaper printed
copies.
8. As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe began exporting
books to many different countries.
9. Scribes or skilled handwriters were no longer solely employed by wealthy or
influential patrons but increasingly by booksellers as well.
10. More than 50 scribes often worked for one bookseller.

LIMITATIONS OF HANDWRITTEN MANUSCRIPTS:

1. It could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books.
2. Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.
3. Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or
read easily. Their circulation therefore remained limited.

Hence woodblock printing gradually became more and more popular.

GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS:

● Gutenberg was the son of a merchant and grew up on a large agricultural estate.
● He learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also
acquired the expertise to create lead molds used for making trinkets.
● Gutenberg adapted existing technology to design his innovation.
● By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. The first book he printed was the
Bible. About 180 copies were printed and it took three years to produce them. By
the standards of the time this was fast production.
● Printed books at first closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance
and layout.
● Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and
illustrations were painted.
● In the books printed for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank on the
printed page.
● In the hundred years between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in
most countries of Europe. Printers from Germany traveled to other countries,
seeking work and helping start new presses.
● The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.
● The second half of the fifteenth century saw 20 million copies of printed books
flooding the markets in Europe. The number went up in the sixteenth century to
about 200 million copies.
Print Revolution And Its Impact
The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing was not just a development, but led
to the print revolution.

(i) It transformed the lives of the people.

(ii) It changed their relationship to information and knowledge.

(iii) It affected relationships with institutions and authorities.

(iv) It opened up new ways of looking at things, and influenced popular perceptions.

A NEW READING PUBLIC:

1. With the printing press, a new reading public emerged.
2. Printing reduced the cost of books. The time and labor required to produce each
book came down, and multiple copies could be produced with greater ease.
3. Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever-growing readership.
4. Access to books created a new culture of reading.
5. Earlier, reading was restricted to the elites.
6. Common people lived in a world of oral culture.
7. They heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited, and folk tales narrated.
8. Knowledge was transferred orally.
9. People collectively heard a story, or saw a performance.
10. Before the age of print, books were not only expensive but they could not be
produced in sufficient numbers.
11. Now books could reach out to wider sections of people. If earlier there was a
hearing public, now a reading public came into being.

RELIGIOUS DEBATES AND THE FEAR OF PRINT:

● Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new
world of debate and discussion.
● Through the printed message, they could persuade people to think differently,
and move them to action.
● Many were apprehensive of the effects that the easier access to the printed word
and the wider circulation of books could have on people’s minds.
● It was feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read then
rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread.
● If that happened the authority of ‘valuable’ literature would be destroyed.
● Expressed by religious authorities and monarchs, as well as many writers and
artists, this anxiety was the basis of widespread criticism of the new printed
literature that had begun to circulate.
● In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticizing
many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
 ● A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It challenged
the Church to debate his ideas. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in
vast numbers and read widely.
● This led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant
Reformation. Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold 5,000 copies within
a few weeks and a second edition appeared within three months.
● Luther said “printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.
● Several scholars, in fact, think that print brought about a new intellectual
atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the Reformation.

PRINT AND DISSENT:

1. In the sixteenth century, Manocchio, a miller in Italy, began to read books that
were available in his locality.
2. He reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and
Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.
3. When the Roman Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas,
Manocchio was hauled up twice and ultimately executed.
4. The Roman Church; troubled by such effects of popular readings and
questioning of faith, imposed severe controls over publishers and booksellers
and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

THE READING MANIA:

1. Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries literacy rates went up in most
parts of Europe.
2. Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy
to peasants and artisans.
3. By the end of the eighteenth century, in some parts of Europe literacy rates were
as high as 60 to 80 per cent.
4. As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading
mania.
5. People wanted books to read and printers produced books in ever increasing
numbers.
6. New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences.
7. There were almanacs or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folktales, In
England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars , In France, were the
‘Bibliotheque Bleue’, which were low-priced small books .
8. In the eighteenth century, Newspapers and journals carried information about
wars and trade, as well as news of developments in other places.
9. The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the
common people.
10. When scientists like Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could
influence a much wider circle of scientifically minded readers.
11. The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques
Rousseau were also widely printed and read. Thus their ideas about science,
reason and rationality found their way into popular literature.
TREMBLE, THEREFORE, TYRANTS OF THE WORLD’
● Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from
despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect would rule.
● Louis-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in eighteenth-century France, declared.‘The
printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the
force that will sweep despotism away’.
● Convinced of the power of prints in bringing enlightenment and destroying the
basis of despotism mercies. Proclaimed “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world.
Tremble before these writers”.

Print Culture And The French Revolution

1. The ideas of enlightenment thinkers: Collectively, their writings provided a critical
commentary on tradition ,superstition and despotism .People argued for the rule of reason
rather than custom and demanded that everything be judged through the application of reason
and rationality. The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read widely and those who read this
book saw the world through new Eyes .
2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate: people had become aware of the power
of reason and recognised the need to question existing ideas and beliefs. So ,new ideas of
social revolution came into being.
3. There was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticized morality : Many
cartoons and caricatures suggested that monarchy enjoys its own Comforts, while common
people suffered. The literature was circulated underground and led to the growth of hostile
sentiments against the monarchy.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:

The nineteenth century saw vast leaps in mass literacy in Europe, bringing in large
numbers of new readers among children, women and workers.

(a) Children
1. From the late nineteenth century, children became an important category of
readers.
2. Production of school textbooks became critical for the publishing industry.
3. A children's press, devoted to literature for children alone, was set up in France
in 1857.
4. This press published new works as well as old fairy tales and folktales.
5. Anything that was considered unsuitable for children or would appear vulgar to
the elites, was not included in the published version.

(b) Women

1. Women became important as readers as well as writers.

2. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching
proper behavior and housekeeping.
 3. Some of the best-known novelists were Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, George
Eliot.
4. Their writings became important in defining a new type of woman: a person with
will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.

(c) Workers

1. In the nineteenth century, lending libraries in England became instruments for

educating white-collar workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people.
2. After the working day was gradually shortened from the mid-nineteenth century,
workers had some time for self-improvement and self - expression.
3. They wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.

FURTHER INNOVATIONS:
● By the late eighteenth century, the press came to be made out of metal. Through
the nineteenth century, there were a series of further innovations in printing
technology.
● By the mid-nineteenth century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the
power-driven cylindrical press.
● This was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour. This press was particularly
useful for printing newspapers.
● In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print
up to six colors at a time.
● From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated
printing operations.
● Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better,
automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the color register were
introduced..

INDIA AND THE WORLD OF PRINT:

Manuscripts Before the age of print:

1. India had a very rich and old tradition of hand written manuscripts in Sanskrit,
Arabic, Persian, as well as in various vernacular languages.
2. Manuscripts continued to be produced till well after the introduction of print, down
to the late nineteenth century.

Limitations

1. Manuscripts were however very expensive and fragile and had to be handled
carefully,
2. they could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.
3. So the manuscripts were not widely used in everyday life.

PRINT COMES TO INDIA:

 1. The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-
sixteenth century.
2. By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in Konkani and in Kanara languages.
3. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713 the
first Malayalam book was printed by them.
4. By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many of them
translations of older works.
5. From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly
magazine .
6. Hickey published a lot of advertisements, including those that related to the
import and sale of slaves.
7. But he also published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior officials in
India.
8. Enraged by this, Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey, and
encouraged the publication of officially sanctioned newspapers that could counter
the flow of information that damaged the image of the colonial government.
9. By the close of the eighteenth century, a number of newspapers and journals
appeared in print.
10. There were Indians, too, who began to publish Indian newspapers.
11. The first to appear was the weekly Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar
Bhattacharya, who was close to Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

RELIGIOUS REFORM AND PUBLIC DEBATES:

● Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in
different ways, and offered a variety of new interpretation of the beliefs of
different religions.
● Some criticized existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others
countered the arguments of reforms.
● These debates were carried out in public and in print. Printed tracks and
newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the nature of the
debate.

PRINT AND THE MUSLIMS:

1. In north India, the ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim
dynasties.
2. They feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion, change the Muslim
personal laws.
3. To counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and
Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts.
4. 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.
 5. All through the nineteenth century, a number of Muslim sects and seminaries
appeared, each with a different interpretation of faith, each keen on enlarging its
following and countering the influence of its opponents.
6. Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in public.

PRINT AND THE HINDUS:

(i) The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out from Calcutta in
1810.

(ii) The mid-nineteenth century, cheap lithographic editions flooded the north Indian
markets.

(iii) From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar
Press in Bombay published many religious texts in vernaculars.

Religious texts and books started reaching a very wide circle of people, encouraging
debates and controversies within and among different religions. Print did not only
stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also
connected communities and people in different parts of India, creating pan-Indian
identities.

New Forms Of Publication

● Many new expectations of the readers, their experiences, emotions were being
printed now in book shape because of an extended readership.
● The novel, a literary firm which had developed in Europe, ideally catered to this
need. It soon acquired distinctively Indian forms and styles.
● Other new literary forms also entered the world of reading – lyrics, short stories,
essays about social and political matters.
● By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape.
● Painters like Raja Ravi Verma produced images for mass circulation.
● By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and
newspapers, commenting on social and political issues.

WOMEN AND PRINT:

(i) Women education:

1. Writers started writing about the lives and feelings of women and this increased
the number of women readers.
2. Women got interested in education and many women schools and colleges were
set up.
3. Many journals started emphasizing the importance of women's education.

(ii) Women writers:

 1. In East Bengal, in the early nineteenth century, Rashsundari Debi, a young
married girl in a very orthodox household, learnt to read in the secrecy of her
kitchen. Later, she wrote' her autobiography "Amar Jiban" which was published in
1876, was the first full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language.
2. From the 1860s, many Bengali women writers like Kailashbashini Debi wrote
books highlighting the experiences of women.
3. In the 1880s, in present-day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai
wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu
women, especially widows.

(iii) Hindu writing and women:

Hindu printing began seriously only from the 1870s. Soon, a large section of it was
devoted to the education of women.

(iv) New journals:

In the early 20th century, the journals written by women became very popular in
which women's education, widowhood, widow remarriage etc. were discussed.

(v) Teachings for women:

1. In Punjab, Ram Chaddha published istri Dharm Vicharto teach women how to be
obedient wives.
2. The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar message.
3. In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta - the Battala - was devoted to the
printing of popular books.
4. Peddlers took the Batala publications to homes, enabling women to read them in
their leisure time.

PRINT AND THE POOR PEOPLE:

Very cheap small books were brought to markets in nineteenth-century Madras towns
and sold at crossroads, allowing poor people traveling to markets to buy them.

● Public libraries

Public libraries were set up from the early twentieth century, expanding the access to
books. For rich local patrons, setting up a library was a way of acquiring prestige.

● Highlighting the issue of class discrimination:

1. From the late nineteenth century, issues of caste discrimination began to be
written about in many printed tracts and essays.
2. Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote
about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871).
3. In the twentieth century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy
Naicker in Madras, better known as Periyar, wrote powerfully on caste and their
writings were read by people all over India.
Poor workers and print:

1. Workers in factories were too overworked and lacked the education to write
much about their experiences.
2. But Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka
Sawal in 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation.
3. The poems of another Kanpur millworker, who wrote under the name of
Sudarshan Chakra between 1935 and 1955, were brought together and
published in a collection called Sacchi Kavitayan.
4. By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate
themselves, following the example of Bombay workers.

Print And Censorship

➢ Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was not too
concerned with censorship.
➢ Early measures to control printed matter were directed against
Englishmen in India who were critical of Company misrule and hated the
actions of particular Company officers.
➢ The Company was worried that such criticisms might be used by its critics
in England to attack its trade monopoly in India.
➢ By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to
control press freedom and the Company began encouraging publication of
newspapers that would celebrate British rule.
➢ In 1835, faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and vernacular
newspapers, Governor-General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws. Thomas
Macaulay, a liberal colonial official, formulated new rules that restored the
earlier freedoms.
➢ After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed.
Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the ‘native’ press.
➢ As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, the colonial
government began debating measures of stringent control. Local
newspapers started criticizing British rule.
➢ In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modeled on the Irish Press
Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and
editorials in the vernacular press.
➢ From now on the government kept regular track of the vernacular
newspapers published in different provinces.
➢ When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned, and if
the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing
machinery confiscated.
➢ Number of Nationalist Newspapers were increasing despite repressive
measures taken by the British govt. all over India.
➢ Attempts to block nationalist criticism provoked militant protest.
➢ When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak
wrote with great sympathy about them in his Kesari. This led to his
imprisonment in 1908, provoking in turn widespread protests all over India.