Class: X- HISTORY

CHAPTER: PRINT CULTURE AND THE MODERN WORLD

Q1. What do you know about the earliest kind of print technology? Where was it developed?

Ans. 1. The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea.

2. This was a system of hand printing.

3. Books in China were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.

4. Skilled craftsmen would duplicate the books with beautiful calligraphy and accuracy.

Questions on China

Q2. ‘The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed
material.’ Analyze this statement.

1. China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service
examinations.

2. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial
state.

3. DURING the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased
the volume of print.

Q3. By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print
diversified. Explain this statement and highlight the changes that took place during the
19th century.

Ans.

1. Print was used by scholar officials, merchants and women in their everyday life.

2. Reading became a leisure activity. Fictions, poetry autobiographies, romantic plays etc. were
published. This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology.

3. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the late 19 th century to
meet the increasing demand.

4. Shanghai became the hug of new print culture.

 Questions on Japan

Q4. Explain the development of print in Japan.

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

2. The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing six
sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.

3. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money.

4. In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and
abundant.

5. Printing of visual material led to interesting publishing practices. In the late eighteenth 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.

6. Libraries and bookstores were packed with hand-printed material of various types – books on
women, musical instruments, calculations, tea ceremony, flower arrangements, proper
etiquette, cooking and famous places.

Q5. Explain the art form of Ukiyo.

1. Kitagawa Utamaro, born in Edo was widely known for his contributions to an art form called ukiyo
(‘pictures of the floating world’) or depiction of ordinary human experiences, especially urban ones.

2. These prints travelled to contemporary US and Europe and influenced artists like Manet, Monet and
Van Gogh.

3. Publishers like Tsutaya Juzaburo identified subjects and commissioned artists who drew the theme
in outline. Then a skilled woodblock carver pasted the drawing on a woodblock and carved a
printing block to reproduce the painter’s lines.

4. In the process, the original drawing would be destroyed and only prints would survive.

Questions on Europe

Q6. Examine the process of advent of Print in Europe.

Ans.

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. Then, in 1295,
Marco Polo, a great explorer, returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China. China
already had the technology of woodblock printing. Marco Polo brought this knowledge back with
him.
 3. Now Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other
parts of Europe.

4. 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.

5. Merchants and students in the university towns bought the cheaper printed copies.

Q7. What do you known about vellum?

Ans. 1. Vellum was a parchment made from the skin of animals.

2. It was expensive.

3. It was meant for aristocratic circles and rich monastic, libraries.

Q8. How did print culture spread in Europe?

Ans.

1. As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to many
different countries.

2. Book fairs were held at different places.

3. Production of handwritten manuscripts was also organised in new ways to meet the expanded
demand.

4. Scribes or skilled handwriters were no longer solely employed by wealthy or influential patrons but
increasingly by booksellers as well. More than 50 scribes often worked for one bookseller.

Q9. Why had the demand for handwritten manuscripts declined in Europe?

OR

‘By the early 15th century in Europe woodblock Printing became more popular than
handwritten manuscripts. Discuss.

Ans. 1. As the demand for books increased, booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to
many different countries.

2. The production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for
books.

3. Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.

4. Manuscripts were fragile, difficult to handle and could not be carried around or read easily.
Their circulation therefore remained limited.
 Hence with the growing demand for books, wood block printing gradually became more popular.

Q10. Who was Gutenberg? How did he develop the printing press?

Ans. 1. Gutenberg was the son of a merchant who developed the first known printing press in 1430s.

2. From his childhood he had seen the wine and olive presses.

3. He had learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith and also acquired the
expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets.

4. The olive press provided him the model for printing press and moulds were used for casting
the metal types for the letters of the alphabet. By 1448 he perfected the system.

Q11. Briefly explain the model of printing press developed by. Also name the first book printed
using it.

Ans. 1. The first known printing press was developed by Johann Gutenberg at Strasbourg in
Germany in 1430s.

2. It had a long handle attached to the screw.

3. This handle was used to turn the screw and press down the platen over the printing block
that was placed on top of a sheet of damp paper.

4. Gutenberg developed metal types for each of the 26 characters of the Roman alphabet. He
devised a way of moving them around so as to compose different words of the text.

5. This came to be known as movable type printing machine.

6. The first book he printed was ‘The Bible’.

7. The books could now be produced much faster. The Gutenberg press could print 250 sheets
on one side per hour.

Q12. Explain the term ‘print revolution.’ Analyze its impact.

Ans.

The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution. Print revolution
was the development in printing. It was a new way of producing books.

IMPACT

1. It transformed the lives of people, changing their relationship to information and knowledge
and with institutions and authorities. It opened up new ways of looking at things.

2. Printing reduced the cost of books. Books could reach out to wider sections of people and thus a
new culture of reading was created.

3. In Europe literacy rate was very low till 20th century. Those who could not read books enjoyed
listening to books being read out. Popular ballads, folk tales with illustrations were published in
large numbers. Thus, the hearing public and reading public became intermingled.
Q13. ‘The new technology did not entirely displace the existing art of producing books by hand
in Europe.’ Justify this statement.

Ans.

1. Printed books at first closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance and layout.

2. The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles.

3. Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and illustrations were
painted.

4. In the books printed for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank on the printed page.

5. Each purchaser could choose the design and decide on the painting school that would do the
illustrations

Q14. How was there intermingling of hearing and reading public?

OR

‘Oral Culture entered Print and Printed material was transmitted orally.’ Discuss.

1. With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books.
The time and labour required to produce each book came down, and multiple copies could be
produced with greater ease. Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever-growing
readership.

2. Earlier, reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral culture.
They heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited, and folk tales narrated. Knowledge was
transferred orally. People collectively heard a story, or saw a performance.

3. Before the age of print, books were not only expensive but they could not be produced in sufficient
numbers. Now books could reach out to wider sections of people. If earlier there was a hearing
public, now a reading public came into being.

4. Books could be read only by the literate, and the rates of literacy in most European countries
were very low till the twentieth century.

5. Printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales, and such books would be profusely
illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in
taverns in towns.

CONCLUSION

Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. The line that separated
the oral and reading cultures became blurred. And the hearing public and reading public became
intermingled.

Q15. How did publishers in Europe persuade the common people to welcome the printed book?

1. Books could be read only by the literate, and the rates of literacy in most European countries were
very low till the twentieth century.
 2. They had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed work: even those who did not read could
certainly enjoy listening to books being read out.

3. So, printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales, and such books would be profusely
illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns
in towns.

Q16. ‘Print created a new culture of debate and discussion thus; many were apprehensive
about the effects of Print.’ Support this statement with suitable arguments.

Ans.

1. Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world of debate
and discussion. Even those who disagreed with established authorities could now print and
circulate their ideas.

2. Through the printed message, they could persuade people to think differently, and move them
to action. This had significance in different spheres of life.

3. Not everyone welcomed the printed book, and those who did also had fears about it. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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 began to
circulate.

6. E.g. in 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five thesis criticizing many of the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.

Q17. ‘Martin Luther’s writings laid foundation for Protestant Reformation.’ Explain.

Ans.

1. In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety-Five Theses criticising many of the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.

2. A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It challenged the Church to
debate his ideas.

3. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This lead to a
division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

4. Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold 5,000 copies within a few weeks and a second
edition appeared within three months.
 5. Deeply grateful to print, 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.

Q18. Why did the Roman Church begin to maintain an index of Prohibited books from 1558?

Ans. 1. Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of
faith even among little educated working people.

2. In the 16th century, Manocchio, a miller in Italy, reinterpreted the message of Bible that
angered the Roman Catholic Church.

3. The Roman Church was troubled by such effects of popular readings and questionings of
faith.

4. Hence, it imposed several controls over publishers and booksellers and began to maintain an
index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

Q19. Write a short note on Erasmus’s idea of the Printed book.

Ans. 1. Erasmus was a Latin Scholar and a catholic reformer.

2. He criticized the excesses of Catholicism.

3. He expressed deep concern about increasing influence of printing in ‘Adages’ (1508).

4. He criticized the printing of scandalous, irreligious, seditious books in large numbers.

Q20. ‘Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries literacy rates went up in most parts of
Europe’. Give Reasons.
Or

Discuss the spread of Reading Mania in Europe during 17th and 18th Century.
Or

Discuss the new forms of popular literature that appeared in Print during 17th and 18th century.
(point 2 onwards)

1. Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to peasants and
artisans. By the end of the eighteenth century, in some parts of Europe literacy rates were as
high as 60 to 80 per cent. People wanted books to read and printers produced books in ever
increasing numbers.

2. Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages, carrying little books for sale. There
were almanacs or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folktales.

3. Other forms of reading matter, largely for entertainment, began to reach ordinary readers. In
England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars known as chapmen, and sold for a
penny, so that even the poor could buy them.
 4. In France, were the ‘Biliotheque Bleue’, which were low-priced small books printed on poor
quality paper, and bound in cheap blue covers.

5. Then there were the romances, printed on four to six pages, and the more substantial
‘histories’ which were stories about the past. Books were of various sizes, serving many
different purposes and interests.

6. The periodical press developed from the early eighteenth century, combining information about
current affairs with entertainment.

7. Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade, as well as news of
developments in other places.

8. The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common
people. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and maps and
scientific diagrams were widely printed.

Eg. Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries; they could influence a much wider circle of
scientifically minded readers.The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean
Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed and read.

Q21. By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that books were a means
of spreading progress and enlightenment. Illustrate.

Ans.

1. Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and
tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect would rule.

2. Louise-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.’

3. In many of Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading. They devour books,
are lost in the world books create, and become enlightened in the process.

4. Convinced of the power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism,
Mercier proclaimed: ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual
writer!’

Q22. ‘Print Culture created the conditions within which French Revolution occurred’. Discuss.

Ans. Many historians have argued that print culture created the conditions with in which French
Revolution occurred. The three types of arguments are:
 1. Print popularized the idea of enlightenment thinkers. They argued for the rule of reason
and rationally rather than custom. They attacked the sacred authority of the church and
despotic power of the state.

2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All existing ideas and beliefs began to
be questioned by the public. As such new ideas of social revolution came into being.

3. By the 1780s, there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticized
their morality. Cartoons and caricatures had an impact on the thinking of people. This led
to the hostile sentiments against monarchy.

Q23. “The 19th century Europe had a large number of readers among children, women and
workers”. Discuss.

Ans. Children

1. As primary education became compulsory, children became important category of readers.

2. A children’s press devoted to literature for children was set up in France in 1857.

3. Old fairy tales, folk tales were published.

4. Anything that was considered unsuitable for children was not included in the public version.

Women

1. Women became important as readers and writers.

2. Penny magazines, manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping, novels were
popular among women readers.

3. Some of the best-known novelists were women – Jane Austen, Bronte Sisters, George Eliot.

Workers

1. In the 19th century lending libraries became instruments for educating white collar workers,
artisans and lower middle-class people.

2. Workers would spare time for self improvement and self expression. They wrote political
tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.

Q24. Mention the innovations made in printing technology during the 19 th century and early
20th century.

Ans. Through the 19th century there were a series of innovations in printing technology. They were:

1. 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.
 2. In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six
colours at a time.

3. From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated
printing operations.

4. A series of other developments followed. Methods of feeding paper improved, the

quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of
the colour register were introduced. The accumulation of several individual mechanical
improvements transformed the appearance of printed texts.

5. In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling
Series.

6. The dust cover or the book jacket is also a twentieth-century innovation.

Questions on India

Q25. Enumerate the characteristic features of the manuscripts that were written before the age
of print in India. Highlight their limitations.

Ans.

1. India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian,
as well as in various vernacular languages.

2. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.

3. Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated. They would be either pressed between wooden
covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.

LIMITATIONS

i.Manuscripts, however, were highly expensive and fragile.

ii.They had to be handled carefully, and

iii. They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles. So, manuscripts were
not widely used in everyday life.

Q26. Analyze the arrival of print in India.

Ans.

i. The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-sixteenth
century.

ii. Jesuit priests (Roman Catholic priest who is a member of the Society of Jesus) learnt Konkani and
printed several tracts. By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and in Kanara
languages.

iii. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and in 1713 the first
Malayalam book was printed by them.
 iv. By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many of them translations
of older works.

v. The English language press did not grow in India till quite late even though the English East
India Company began to import presses from the late seventeenth century.

Q27. Why did Governor-General Warren Hastings persecute James Augustus Hickey?

Ans.

i. From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine that
described itself as ‘a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’.

ii. So it was private English enterprise, proud of its independence from colonial influence, that began
English printing in India.

iii. Hickey published a lot of advertisements, including those that related to the import and sale of
slaves. But he also published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior officials in India.

iv. 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.

Q28. ‘From the early nineteenth century, there were intense debates around religious issues in
India.’ Give reasons. Explain the contribution of print towards shaping public opinion.

 Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different
ways, and offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions.

 Some criticised existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the
arguments of reformers.

 These debates were carried out in public and in print.

 A wider public could now participate in these public discussions and express their views.
New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.

 This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the Hindu
orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood,
idolatry.

CONTRIBUTION OF PRINT IN SHAPING PUBLIC OPINION:

i. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the
nature of the debate. As the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated,
circulating a variety of arguments.

ii. To reach a wider audience, the ideas were printed in the everyday, spoken language of
ordinary people.

EXAMPLES:

 Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821

  the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions.

 From 1822, two Persian newspapers were published, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and
Shamsul Akhbar.

 In the same year, a Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, made its appearance.

Q29. Who were Ulama? What did they fear? What did they do to counter their fear?

Ans. Ulama were the legal scholars of Islam and Sharia.

FEAR:

 They were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties.

 They feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion change the Muslim personal law.

COUNTERING FEAR

 To counter their fear, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu
translations of holy scriptures and printed religious newspapers and tracts.

 The Deoband Seminary published thousand of Fatwas telling muslim readers how to conduct
themselves in their everyday lives and explained the meanings of Islamic doctrines.

Q30. ‘Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in the
vernacular languages.’ Illustrate this statement.

Ans.

1. The first printed edition of the. Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a sixteenth-century text, came
out from Calcutta in 1810.

2. By the mid-nineteenth century, cheap lithographic editions flooded north Indian markets.

3. From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in
Bombay published numerous religious texts in vernaculars.

4. In their printed and portable form, these could be read easily by the faithful at any place and time.
They could also be read out to large groups of illiterate men and women.

5. Religious texts, therefore, reached a very wide circle of people, encouraging discussions,
debates and controversies within and among different religions.

6. Print did not only stimulate the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also
connected communities and people in different parts of India.

Q31. ‘Printing created an appetite for new kinds of writing.’ In the light of this statement,
explain the new forms of publications that came into being in India.

Ans. As more and more people could now read, they wanted to see their own lives, experiences,
emotions and relationships reflected in what they read.
 I. NOVELS:

The novel, a literary firm which had developed in Europe, ideally catered to this need. It soon
acquired distinctively Indian forms and styles. For readers, it opened up new worlds of experience,
and gave a vivid sense of the diversity of human lives.

II. LYRICS, SHORT STORIES AND ESSAYS:

 Other new literary forms also entered the world of reading – lyrics, short stories, essays about
social and political matters. In different ways, they reinforced the new emphasis on human
lives and intimate feelings, about the political and social rules that shaped such things.

III. VISUAL CULTURE:

 By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape. With the setting up
of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in
multiple copies.

 Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation.

 Poor wood engravers who made woodblocks set up shop near the letterpresses, and were
employed by print shops.

IV. CALENDERS

 Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to
decorate the walls of their homes or places of work.

V. CARTOONS AND CARICATURES

 By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers,
commenting on social and political issues.

 Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians’ fascination with Western tastes and
clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change.

 There were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as nationalist cartoons

criticising imperial rule.

Q32. What did the spread of print culture in 19th Century India mean to Women, the poor and
the reformers?

Ans. Women and Print Culture:

1. With the spread of print culture in the 19 th century, women’s reading increased due to
education at home and later on in the women’s school.

2. Women writers wrote books about their problems – how women were imprisoned at home,
kept in ignorance, forced domestic labour etc.
 3. Novels in Urdu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi were published which highlighted miseries of
women – upper caste Hindu women, widows.

4. It was basically the print culture which helped the women to become educated and women
writers to work for the emancipation of women.

Poor and Print Culture:

1. In the 19th century, with the spread of education reading has increased among the poor
people also.

2. Cheap small books were published for them.

3. Public libraries were set up expanding the access the books.

4. The problems of the poor people began to be written and published. For e.g. Jyotiba Phule
wrote about – the injustices of caste system in Gulamgiri.

5. The books highlighting the exploitation of the poor people were read all over India.

6. Social reformers tried to improve the condition of poor workers through print.

Reformers and Print Culture:

1. In the 19th century, printing helped the social and religious reformers to bring reforms in the
Indian society.

2. They took up the matter like widow immolation, monotheism, priest hood idolatry, caste
system etc. through books, newspapers, journals and magazines.

3. In North India muslims published thousands of fatwas telling readers how to conduct
themselves in everyday life and explained the meaning of Islamic doctrine.

4. Religious and social reformers could spread their message to a wide circle of people through
print media. The encouraged discussions and debates in the society.

Q33. Explain the Vernacular Press Act of 1878.

Ans. 1. Vernacular Act was passed in 1878 modelled on the Irish press laws.

2. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the
vernacular press.

3. The Govt. kept regular track of newspapers and if a report was judged seditious, the
newspaper was warmed.

4. If the warming was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery
confiscated.

Q34. Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.

Ans. 1. Print culture played an important role in the growth of nationalism in India, Vernacular
newspapers became nationalist; Although the Vernacular Press Act was passed, nationalist
newspapers grew in number, in all parts of India.
 2. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities.

3. There were protests all over India when Balgangadhar Tilak was imprisoned for his articles in
Kesari.

4. People all over India become aware of the colonial misrule.

Thus, print media helped to instill the feeling of nationalism among Indians.

Q35. Why did some people in 18th century think that print culture would bring enlightenment
and end despotism?

Ans. 1. Books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment.

2. Print created a wider circulation of ideas and introduced a new world of debate and
discussion.

3. The ideas of scientist, philosophers, and writings of great thinkers were widely printed and
read.

4. As such it was believed that books would change the world and liberate Society from
despotism and tyranny. Culture of reading would herald a time when reason and intellect
would rule.

5. Lousie Sebastien has very rightly said that ‘the printing press is the most powerful engine of
progress and public opinion is the force that would sweep despotism.

Q36. Gandhiji said the fight for swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of press and
freedom of association. Give reasons.

Ans. Gandhiji believed that it is the force of public opinion that would end the British rule in India. This
public opinion could be obtained through the printing press. He believed that the liberty of speech,
liberty of the press and freedom of association were the three powerful vehicles of expression and
cultivating public opinion.