NCERT Class 10 History Print and Censorship

Print and Censorship

Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was not too concerned with censorship. Strangely, its 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 Britsh 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. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modelled 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.

Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in all parts of India. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities. Attempts to throttle nationalist criticism provoked militant protest. This in turn led to a renewed cycle of persecution and protests. When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Balgangadhar 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.

Write in brief

1. Give reasons for the following:

a) Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.

b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it.

c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited books from the mid-sixteenth century.

d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association.

2. Write short notes to show what you know about:

a) The Gutenberg Press

b) Erasmus’s idea of the printed book

c) The Vernacular Press Act

3. What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to:

a) Women

b) The poor

c) Reformers

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 10 History Print and Censorship