CBSE Class 10 Social Science Print Culture Modern World Worksheet Set C

Objective Type Questions 

Question: Name the first weekly magazine published in India by Gangadhar Bhattacharya.
a) Anandabazar Patrika
b) Yugantar
c) Sambad Kaumudi
d) Bengal Gazette
Answer: d

Question: The first printing press was developed by:
a) Marco Polo
b) Kitagawa Utamaro
c) Johann Gutenberg
d) Erasmus
Answer: c

Question: In ancient India which of the following material was used for writing manuscripts?
a) Parchments
b) Vellum
c) Palm Leaves
d) Paper
Answer: c

Question: By whom was ‘Sambad Kaumudi’ published in 1821?
a) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
b) C.R. Das
c) Raja Ram Mohan Roy
d) Swami Vivekanand
Answer: c

Question: Which one of the following is the oldest Japanese book?
a) Sutta Pitaka
b) Diamond Sutra
c) Mahavamsa
d) Dipavamsa
Answer: b

Question: With what purpose was the Vernacular Press Act passed by Lord Lyton in 1878?
a) To popularise Vernacular Press
b) To supervise Vernacular Press
c) To clamp down and censor the native press
d) To encourage authors writing in Indian languages
Answer: c

Question: ‘Aamar Jiban’ is the autobiography of which of the following women author?
a) Rashsundari Debi
b) Rokeya Hossain
c) Kailashbashini Debi
d) Pandita Ramabai
Answer: a

Short Answer Type Questions

Question: Examine the role of missionaries in the growth of press in India.
Answer: (i) The printing press first came to Goa in Western India through Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16th century.
(ii) Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed several texts and nearly 50 books were printed in Konkani.
(iii) Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin.
(iv) The first Malayalam book was printed in 1713.
(v) The Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts.

Question: Why did the attitude of the colonial Government towards the freedom of the press change after the revolt of 1857? What repressive measures were put into place?
Answer: After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of press changed. Enraged English officials clamped down the native press because of their nationalists activities.
(i) In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed. It provided the government extensive rights to censor reports.
(ii) The government kept regular track of the Vernacular newspaper, when a report was judged as seditious the newspaper was warned, the press was liable to be seized and machinery could be confiscated.

Question: Highlight any three circumstances that led to the intermingling of the hearing culture and the reading culture.
OR
Describe any three circumstances that intermingled the hearing culture and reading culture.
Answer: (i) The rate of literacy was very low in Europe till the end of the 20th century. In order to attract people towards books, the printers started printing popular ballads and folk
tales with a lot of illustration.
(ii) Such books were recited at gatherings and it attracted listeners.
(iii) Thus, the oral culture was printed and printed material was orally transmitted. That’s how oral and reading culture intermingled.

Question: Explain any three factors responsible for the invention of new printing techniques.
Answer: (i) The production of handwritten manuscript could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books.
(ii) Copying was expensive, laborious and time taking.
(iii) Manuscripts were fragile, difficult to handle and could not be cared for or read easily.

Question: What is meant by the print revolution? Explain its significance.
Answer: With the invention of printing press, the printing of books started at a large scale. It was called the Print Revolution. Significance :
(i) With the printing press, a new reading public emerged.
(ii) Printing reduced the cost of books.
(iii) Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever growing readership.
(iv) It led to the growth and development in technique and production of books. It also transformed the lives of people by opening the door of knowledge to a vast literate population.
(v) It influenced people’s conception and opened new ways of looking at things.
(vi) It encouraged debates and discussions on written texts and encouraged freedom of opinion on important issues.
(vii) Generated a new reading habit and book culture.

Question: How did new forms of popular literature appear in print targeting new audience in the 18th century? Explain with examples.
Answer: (i) There were almanacs along with ballads and folk tales. In England, Chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars known as chapman and sold for a penny.
(ii) Biliotheque Bleue was low-priced books sold in France. (iii) There were the romances printed on four to six pages and the more substantial ‘Histories’ which were stories of the past.

Question: How did print introduce debate and discussion? Explain in three points.
OR
“Print created the possibility of wide circulation of ideas and introduced a new world of debate and discussion.” Analyse the statement in the context of religion in Europe.
Answer: Print created the possibility of the wide circulation of ideas:
Due to print creation, those people who disagreed with established authorities could not print and circulate their ideas. Though the printed message, they could persuade people to think differently. This had significance in different spheres of life. Not everyone welcomed the printed books and those who did also had fears about it. Many were apprehensive of the effects that the easier access to the printed books could have on people’s mind. It was feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread.

Question: For what purpose did Ram Chaddha, publish ‘Istri Dharam Vichar’?
Answer: (i) In Punjab, similar folk literature about discussing women issues was widely printed from the early 20th century.
(ii) Ram Chaddha published the fast selling ‘Istri Dharam Vichar’ to teach women how to be obedient wives.

Question: Explain any three features of hand written manuscripts before the age of print in India.
Answer: (i) Manuscripts were copies on palm leaves or on handmade paper.
(ii) Pages were beautifully illustrated.
(iii) Manuscripts were highly expensive but fragile.
(iv) They were in various vernacular languages.
(v) They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.

Question: Evaluate the efforts made by the British in India to impose censorship on the press.
Answer: (i) By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to control press freedom and the country began encouraging publication of newspapers that would celebrate British Rule.
(ii) In 1835, faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and Vernacular newspapers, Governor General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws.
(iii) 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 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 could be confiscated.

Question: Who was Menocchio? Mention any two contributions of him in the field of print culture in the sixteenth century.
Answer: Menocchio was a miller of sixteenth century in Italy, he began to read books that were available in his locality.
(i) He reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.
(ii) When the Roman Church began its inquisition to repress heretical ideas, Menocchio was hauled up twice and was ultimately executed.

Question: How had the earliest printing technology developed in the world? Explain with examples.
Answer: (i) The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea. In China woodblocks were used for hand printing.
(ii) Up to the 6th century print was used only by the scholar officials but later it became common.
(iii) The Buddhist missionaries introduced hand printing technology from China to Japan.
(iv) It was Marco Polo, a great explorer, who brought printing knowledge of woodblock from China to Italy.
(v) The invention of the printing press proved great miracle in spreading knowledge.

Question: Explain the reasons favouring shift from hand printing to mechanical printing in China.
OR
Explain the different stages of development of Printing Technology in China.
Answer: The reasons favouring shift from hand printing to mechanical printing in China are:
(i) Textbooks of Civil Service Examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of print.
(ii) By the seventeenth century, print was no longer used just by scholar officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information.
(iii) Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays.
(iv) Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives. The new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in China and Shanghai became the new hub of the new print culture.

Question: How did the printers manage to attract the people, largely illiterate, towards printed books?
Answer: (i) To attract people, the printers started printing popular ballads and folk tales.
(ii) To attract people books had been incorporated with lots of illustrations.
(iii) Ballads and folk tales were sung and recited to the people in gatherings in the villages.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question: How did print culture affect the life of poor people and women in the nineteenth century India? Explain.
Answer: (i) The print culture gave birth to new forms of popular literature. Very small books were brought out. They were sold crossroads. The poor people brought these books and read with great interest. Books were cheap, even the poor could afford to buy them. Public libraries were set up.
(ii) The print culture made the women important, as readers as well as writers. Women’s reading increased enormously in middle-class homes. Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and send them to schools. Women’s schools were set up.

Question: Describe any five strategies developed by the printers and publishers in the 19th century to sell their products.
Answer: Some of the important strategies adopted by the printers and publishers to sell books are:
(i) They brought out serialized novels. The first serialized novel was Shilling Series. It was a cheap series that was very popular and was sold in England in 1920s.
(ii) The advertisers put up advertisements at strategic public locations such as building, railway station, etc. to attract buyers and improve sales.
(iii) The dust cover or the book jacket is the 20th century innovation.
(iv) One of the great innovations was the introduction of cheap paperback books in the 1930s, in during the Great Depression in order to keep the steady sale of books at the time of recessions. Cheap paperback editions were brought to counter the effect of the Great Depression in the 1930s.
(v) The Shilling Series was also considered an important innovation at this time.

Question: Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.
Answer: Print culture, i.e., press and literature played a crucial role in the growth and spread of nationalism in India:
(i) In the 19th century, a huge quantity of national literature was created. Revolutionised minds of people inspired them to throw away the British yoke.
(ii) India Mirror, Bombay Samachar, The Hindu, Kesari- Indian newspapers exerted deep imprint on the minds of people.
(iii) Nationalist press reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities. For example, when Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them.
(iv) Gandhiji spread his ideas of Swadeshi in a powerful way through newspapers. Many vernacular newspapers came up in India to spread nationalism.

Question: Explain briefly the initial efforts made by foreigners to introduce printing press in India.
Answer: (i) The Portuguese missionaries first introduced printing press in India in the mid 16th century.
(ii) Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed several tracts.
(iii) By 1674 about 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and Kannada language.
(iv) Catholic priest first published printed books in Tamil in Cochin and in 1713 first Malayalam book was printed.
(v) The Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed nearly 32 printed text in Tamil which were later translated.
(vi) The English language press did not grow in India till quite late even though officials of the East India Company began to import presses from late 17th century.
(vii) From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine; it was a private English enterprise and was free from colonial influence.
(viii) Hickey published a lot of advertisements including those that related to import and sale of slaves.
(ix) By the close of the 18th century, a number of newspaper and journals appeared in print.

Question: What were the three difficulties in copying manuscripts? What was the use of printing press? Describe.
Answer: Difficulties in copying manuscripts:
(i) Copying manuscript was an expensive business.
(ii) It was laborious and time-consuming.
(iii) Manuscripts themselves were fragile, awkward to handle and could not be easily carried around or read easily.
Use of printing press :
(i) It enables people to produce books at greater speed.
(ii) The production of books in large number created a new culture of reading and enlarged the number of readers.

Question: “Print not only stimulated the publication of conflicting opinions amongst communities, but it also connected communities and people in different parts of India.” Examine the statement.
OR
Evaluate the role of print in connecting various communities in different parts of India.
Answer: (i) Religious texts, reached a wide circle of people encouraging discussions, debates and controversies within and among different religions.
(ii) Newspapers conveyed news from one place to other creating pan-Indian identities.
(iii) Spread of ideas through printed texts and newspapers led to widespread participation of Indians.
(iv) Print propagated against social evils like Sati, child marriage and the purdah system.
(v) Emergence of many social reforms and reform movements.
(vi) New ideas emerged through the clashes of opinions.

Question: Describe the impact of the print revolution in Europe during 15th and 16th century.
Answer: Impact of the print revolution in Europe during the 15th and 16th century:
(i) Printing reduced the cost of books.
(ii) The time and labour required to produce each book came down, multiple copies could be produced with greater ease.
(iii) Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever- growing readership.
(iv) Publishers started publishing popular ballads folk tales with beautiful pictures and illustrations.
(v) Knowledge was transferred orally.
(vi) Print created the possibility of the wide circulation of ideas and introduced a new world of debate and discussion.
(vii) Even those who disagreed with established authorities could now print and circulate their ideas. e.g., Martin Luther was a German monk, priest, professor and church reformer. He challenged the Church to debate his ideas.
(viii) This led to division within the Church and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
(ix) Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of faith even among little-educated working people.
(x) In the sixteenth century, Menocchio, a miller in Italy, reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.

Question: What was the attitude of liberal and conservative Indians towards women’s reading? How did woman like Kailashbashini Debi respond to this in her writings?
OR
Describe the attitude of liberal and conservative Indian’s towards women’s reading?
Answer: (i) Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to schools.
(ii) Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading romantic books.
(iii) Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women-how women were imprisoned at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hard domestic labour.

Question: Martin Luther remarked “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.” Explain this remark in the light of the religious reforms that took place in Europe in the 16th century.
OR
How did Martin Luther’s writing bring reforms in the religious field? Explain.
Answer: (i) Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising the malpractices in the Roman Catholic Church. He posted a printed copy of it on the door of a church in Wittenberg.
(ii) Luther’s writings immediately became popular through printed copies and were read widely.
(iii) 5000 printed copies of Luther’s translation of the New Testament were sold in a week.
(iv) All these led to a religious debate and marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
(v) Printing technology played a key role in bringing religious reforms in the 16th century. Hence, Martin Luther’s remarks were apt, effective and practical.