Print Culture and the Modern World

1. India and the World of Print

2. Religious Reforms and Public Debates
3. New forms of Publication
4. Women and Print
5. Print in Vernacular Language for Women
6. Print and Poor People
7. Print and Censorship
1

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 India and the World of Print
2
Manuscripts before the Age of Print
India had a rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscript in
various vernacular languages, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian

Written on palm leaves and handmade paper

Pages beautifully illustrated

Manuscripts were highly expensive and fragile

Had to handle carefully, could not be read easily as the script was
written in different styles.
Teachers dictated notes to students, who became literate without
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reading ay text
 India and the World of Print
3

Print Comes to India

Printing Press came to Goa with Portuguese Missionaries in mid 16th
century

They learnt Konkani

Printed books in Konkani and Kanara

First Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin and in 1713 first Malayalam book

By 1710, Dutch missionaries printed 32 Tamil texts

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 India and the World of Print
4

Print Comes to India

James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly
magazine
Hickey (a British) published a lots of advertisements, and gossips about
senior officers

Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey

Indians too began to publish newspapers

First one was Bengal Gazette by Gangadhar Bhattacharya

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 Religious Reforms and Public
5
Debates

Religion
and Islam Hindu
Social Religion Religion
Reforms

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 Religion and Social Reforms
6
• Controversy between social and religious reformers on Hindu orthodoxy

• Social issue taken – widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical

priesthood and idolatry

• Rammohun Roy published Sambadd Kaumudi – 1821 on Hindu

orthodoxy

• Persian newspapers, Shamsul-Akbar and

• Gujarati Newspaper, Bombay Samachar made it appearance in 1822.

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 Islam Religion Legal scholars of Islam
7
• In north India, ulamas anxious about collapse of Muslim
dynasties

• They fear that colonial rulers would encourage conversion and

change the Muslim personal law

• They published cheap holy books and religious newspapers

• Deboband Seminary (1867) published thousands of fatwas

• Telling Muslim about the code of conduct to be followed.

www.creativetouch.in A legal pronouncement on
Islamic law
 Hindu Religion
8
• Tulsidas (16th century text) Ramcharitmanas, 1st printed
edition come out from Calcutta in 1810.

• Naval Kishore Press in Lucknow and Shri Venkateshwar

Press in Bombay published many religious text in vernacular

• Religious texts reached a very wide circle of people

• Led to debates, discussion and controversies on religious

texts
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9 New forms of Publications

New Role of
Visual
Forms Caricatu
Images
res

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 New Forms
10

More and more people started reading

That developed the demand of new types of writing styles in that

period like

Novels, short stories, poetry, plays and autobiographies

Novels were the most popular

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 Visual Images
11

By the end of 19th century, a new visual culture started taking

shape

Painter- Raja Ravi Verma produced images for mass circulation

Wood engravers who made woodblocks set up shops near printers

Cheap prints and calendars were easily available for poor people

These prints shaped popular ideas about modernity, religion and

politics
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 Role of Caricatures
12

By 1870’s Cartoons and caricatures published in journals and

newspapers

Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians fascination with

western culture

There were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists,

As well as nationalist cartoons criticising imperial rule

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13

Women
and Print

Women’s Life
Women Writers
Written and
(India)
Printed

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14
Women’s Life Written
and Printed

Books began to be written on women’s life and feelings

Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk

at home

Educated women wrote articles in journal

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15
Women’s Life Written
and Printed

Syllabus designed to women taking education at home

Conservative Hindus believed that if women would read, they

would be widowed

Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by

reading Urdu romances

Many rebel women defied these prohibition

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16 Women Writers (India)

East Bengal: Rashsundari Debi learnt to read in secrecy of her

kitchen

She wrote her autobiography ‘Amar Jiban’

Kailashbashini Debi wrote how women were imprisoned at home

and kept in ignorance

Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai – in Maharashtra wrote

about miserable lives of upper-caste women and widows
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 Print in Vernacular Language for
17
Women

Hindi Punjabi Bengali

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 Hindi
18

➢ Hindi printing began seriously only after 1870s

➢ Large part devoted to education of women

➢ Journals written for women

➢ Discussed issues like women’s education, widowhood,

widow remarriage and national movement

➢ Also household and fashion lessons to women and

entertainment through short stories

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 Punjabi
19

➢ In Punjab, Ram Chaddha published fast-selling ‘Istri-

Dharam Vichar’

➢ The Khalsa Track Society published cheap booklets for

women to be obedient wives

➢ Discussed qualities of a good woman

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 Bengali
20

➢ In central Calcutta. The Battala, devoted to printing of

popular books

➢ Books, profusely illustrated

➢ Pedlars took the Battala publications to homes, enabling

women to read them.

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21
Print and
Poor People

Caste
Mill Workers
Discrimination
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22
Caste Discrimination

➢ Cheap small books appeared

➢ Jyotiba Phule, Maratha pioneer, wrote about

injustices of caste system in ‘Gulamgiri’.

➢ B.R. Ambedkar, E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker

wrote on caste system.

➢ Local protests and sects also created a lot of

journals criticising ancient scriptures.

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23
Mill Workers
➢ Workers overworked lacked education to
write about their experiences

➢ Kashibaba, a Kanpur mill-worker wrote :

‘Chhote Aur Bade ka Sawal’.

➢ Kanpur mill-worker Sudarshan Chakr

published ‘Sacchi Kavitayen’

➢ Bangalore cotton mill-workers set up

libraries

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 Print and
24
Censorship

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25 Regulations to Control Press
❖ 1820s, Calcutta Supreme Court set regulations to
control press freedom.

❖ Company encouraged newspapers that would

celebrate British rule

❖ Governor-General William Bentinck agreed to

revise press laws (1835)

❖ Thomas Macaulay, formulated new rules to restore

the earlier freedom

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 Vernacular Press Act
26
❖ After revolt of 1857, attitude to press freedom of
the press changed
Irish Press
❖ Vernacular newspapers became nationalist Laws

❖ 1878, Vernacular Press Act Passed

❖ Provided government with extensive rights to

censor reports in Vernacular Press

❖ Government now kept regular check

❖ Seditious news printing were liable to be seized of

printing press
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 Quiz Time
27

Q. Who among the following

Q. First weekly paper
Governor General agreed to
published in India?
revise Press Laws in 1835?
(a) Bombay Samachar
(a) Lord Dalhousie
(b) Bengal Gazette
(b) William Bentinck
(c) Naval Kishore
(c) Mount bantain
(d) Shamsul Akbar
(d) None of the above

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 Quiz Time
28

Q. Who among the following

Q. First weekly paper
Governor General agreed to
published in India?
revise Press Laws in 1835?
(a) Bombay Samachar
(a) Lord Dalhousie
(b) Bengal Gazette
(b) William Bentinck
(c) Naval Kishore
(c) Mount bantain
(d) Shamsul Akbar
(d) None of the above

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