Class 10 history chapter 5 notes

Short Notes on Chapter 5: Everyday Life, Culture, and Politics- Print Culture and the Modern World for Class 10

This chapter explores the transformative impact of the printing press in India, highlighting its role in shaping modern literature, promoting women’s education, addressing caste discrimination, and fueling nationalist movements. It also discusses censorship under colonial rule, the rise of vernacular publications. and the emergence of a vibrant visual and literary culture that connected diverse social groups.

The first Printed Books

Origin: Hand-printing technology developed in China, Japan, Korea.

China:

• From AD 594, books printed using woodblocks.
• Accordion-style books, folded and stitched.
• By the 17th century, print diversified into fiction, poetry, and autobiographies.
• Late 19th century: Mechanical presses intorduced by Western powers.
• Shanghai became the hub of modern print culture.

Japan:

• Introduce by Buddhist missionaries (AD 768-770).
• Oldest book: Diamond Sutra (AD 868) with text and woodcut illustrations.
• Popular for illustrated collections in Edo (Tokyo) urban culture.
• Art form ukioy-e (“pictures of the floating world”) gained popularity.
• Kitagawa Utamaro and Tsutaya Juzaburo known for woodblock prints.

Print Comes to Europe

• Introduction:
  • Paper introduced via the Silk Route in the 11th century.
  • Marco Polo brought woodblock printing knowledge from China (1295).
• Handwritten Manuscripts:
  • Expensive, fragile and labour-intensive.
  • Used vellum for luxury editions for aristocrats and monostic libraries.
• Woodblock Printing:
  • Gained popularity for textiles, playing cards, and religious images.
  • Could not meet the increase demand for books

Gutenberg and the Printing Press

• Invenstion:
  • Johan Getenberg developed the first known printing press in the 1430s in Germany.
  • Inspiration: Wine/ olive presses and goldsmith’s moulds.
  • First printed book: Gutenberg Bible (1448)- 180 copies produced in 3 years.
• Impact:
  • By 1550, printing presses established across Europe.
  • Production increased to 20 million books (15th century) and 200 million (16th century).
  • Movable type machine became the standard for 300 years.

Jikji (Korea):

• Oldest book printed with movable metal type (14th century).
• Recoginsed by UNESCO Memory of the World (2001).

Gutenberg Printing Press:

• Could print 250 sheets per hour on one side.
• Revoluntionised book production with faster, cheaper printing.

Terms to Remember:

• Platen: Board used to press paper onto type letterpress printing.
• Ukiyo-e: Japanese art sytle depicting ordinary urban life.

A New Reading Public

• Impact of Printing Press:
  • Reduced book costs and production time.
  • Books became accessible to a broader audience, creating a reading public.
  • Shift from oral to print culture; oral traditions blended with print.
• Challenges:
  • Low literacy rates; publishers used illustrations and recited texts to attract the non-literate.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

• Circulation of Ideas:
  • Enabled debates and questioning of authority (e.g., Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses).
  • Led to the Protestant Reformation and spread of new religious ideas.
• Fear of Print:
  • Religious authorities and monarchs feared rebellious and irreligious thoughts.
  • Strict controls like the Index of Prohibited Books (1558) imposed by the Church.

Printing and Dissent

• Individual Interpretations:
  • Popular religious literature encouraged personal interpretations of faith.
  • Example: Menocchio, an Italian miller, reinterpreted the Bible and faced execution.
• Church Response:
  • Inquisitions and censorship to suppress heretical ideas.

The Reading Mania

• Rise in Literacy:
  • Literacy rates increased, leading to a demand for books.
  • Churches established schools, spreading literacy among peasants and artisans.
• Popular Literature:
  • Cheap, accessible books like penny chapbooks (England) and Bibliotheque Bleue (France).
  • Scientific works and philosophical texts became widely available.

Tremble, Tyrants of the World!

• Power of Print:
  • Books seen as tools for progress and enlightenment.
  • Thinkers like mercier highlighted the role books in liberating society and opposing tyranny.

Print Culture and the French Revolution

• Key Arguments:
  • Enlightment ideas (Voltaire, Rousseau) criticised tradition, superstition, and despotism.
  • Print fostered dialogue, debate, and re-evaluation of norms.
  • Satirical literature mocked royalty and exposed social inequalities, fueling anti-monarchy sentiments.

The Nineteenth Century: Children, Women, and Workers

• Children: Rise in mass literacy due to compulsory primary education (late 19th cnetury).
  • School textbooks became vital for publishers.
  • Children’s Press in France (1857) published fairy tlaes 9e.g., Grimm Brothers edited and published folk tales in 1812).
• Women: Important as readers and writers.
  • Penny magazines, behavior manuals, and novels catered catered to women.
  • Women authors like Jane Austin

Workers: Lending lending libraries educated workers, artisans, and the lower middle class.

• Shorter working hours (mid-19th century) enabled self-imrovement.
• Worker wrote political tracts and autobiographies.

Further Innovations

• Technology:
  • Mid-19th century: Richard M. Hoe’s cylindrical press (8,000 sheets/hour).
  • Late 19th century: offset press (multi-colour printing).
  • 20th century: Electrically operated presses, better quality plates, and automatic reels.
• Publishing Strategies:
  • Serialised novels in periodicals.
  • Cheap editions (e.g., Shilling Series).
  • 1930: Paperback editions introduction during the Great Depression.

Print Comes to India

• Manuscripts Before Print
  • Rich tradition of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and vernaculars.
  • Fragile, expensive, and not widely used in daily life.
  • Learning primarily through dictation in pre-colonial Bengal.
• Print Comes to India
  • Introduced by Portuguese missionaries in Goa (16th century).
    • First Tamil book (1579) and Malayalam book (1713).
  • James Augustus Hickey’s Bengal Gazette (1780): Independent English press in India.
    • Published advertisements and gossip, leading to persecution by Warren Hastings.
  • Gangadhar Bhattacharya’s weekly Bengal Cazette: First Indian newspaper.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

Print shaped debates on religious and social issues like widow immolation and idolatry.

Reformers (e.g., Rammohan Roy’s Sambad Kaumudi) vs. Orthodoxy (Samachar Chandrika).

Muslim Communities: Used lithographic presses to publish Persian/Urdu translatios of religious texts and fatwas.

Hindu Communities: Printed editions of texts like Ramcharitmanas made religious ideas accessible to the masses.

Print enabled widespread public discussions, creating pan-Indian identities through newspapers.

New Forms of Publication

Growth of Literary Forms: Novels, short stories, essays, and lyrics became popular, reflecting lives, emtions, and relationships.

Visual Culture:

• Printing presses enabled mass production of visual images.
• Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings and cheap calendars shaped ideas on modernity and tradition.
• Cartoons and caricatures commented on social social and political issues.

Women and Print

Education: Liberal families education women; journals journals promoted women’s education.

Resistance: Conservative families opposed women’s literacy; some rebelled to learn secretly. Examples:

• Rashsundari Debi’s autobiography Amar Jiban (1876).
• Writings of Kailashbashini Debi, Tarabai Shindhe, and Pandita Ramabai highlighted women’s issues.

Publications:

• Women’s journals addressed education, widow remarriage, and the national movement.
• Popular folk literature (e.g., Istri Dharm Vichar) reinforced traditional roles.

Print and Poor People

Accessibility: Cheap books sold at crossroads; public libraries established in towns and villages.

Caste Issues:

• Jyotiba Phule (Gulamgiri), B. R. Amebedkar, and Periyar critiqued caste discrimination.
• Workers wrote about class struggles, e.g., Kashibaba’s Chhote Aur Bade ka Sawal (1938).

Worker Education: Libraries set up in mil towns like Bangalore and Bombay to promote literacy and nationalism.

Print and Censorship

Early Colonial Measures: Press freedom controlled initially to avoid criticism of Company misrule.

Vernacular Press Act (1878):

• Allowed censorship and confiscation of seditious material.
• Targeted nationalist newspapers like Kesari by Tilak, leading to imprisonment and protests.
• Nationalist Press: Grew despite repression, fostering anti-colonial sentiments.

Class 10 History: Short Notes for Quick Revision

• Chapter 1 The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
• Chapter 2 The Rise of Nationalism in India
• Chapter 3 the Making of a Global World
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5

Class 10 History: Most Important Questions and Answers

• Chapter 1 The Rise of Natioalism in Europe
• Chpater 2 The Rise of Naitonalism in India
• Chapter 3 The Making of a Global World
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5

Class 10 History:

Class 10 Science: Most Important Questions and Answers

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6 Control and Coordination
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13

Class 10 Science: Short Notes for Quick Revision

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6 Control and Coordination
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10
• Chapter 11
• Chapter 12
• Chapter 13