CBSE Class 10 Social Sciences Print Culture and Modern World HOTS
Q.1. What was an ‘accordion book” ? Describe any two features of hand printing in China ?
Ans. Accordion book was the traditional book of China.
Features :
(i) These were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.
(ii) The beauty of calligraphy was duplicated by skilled craftsmen.
Q.2. Study the given paragraph and answer the following questions that follow :
‘Liberty of speech…. liberty of the press freedom of association. The government of India is now seeking to crush the three powerful vehicles of expressing and cultivating public opinion. The fight for Swaraj, for Khilafat …. means a fight for this threatened freedom before all else ….’
(i) Who said these words ?
Ans. Mahatma Gandhi.
(ii) Name the freedoms he is talking about.
Ans. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Press and the Freedom of Association.
Q.3. ‘The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion and a force that will sweep despotism away.’
Ans. Louise Sebastien Mercier.
Q.4. Why were the printed books popular even among illiterate people ? [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2012]
Ans. (i) Those who could not read enjoyed listening to books being read out. So printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales illustrated with pictures.
(ii) These books were then sung and recited at gathering in villages and in taverns in towns.
(iii) Indian writers like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay himself used to read his novels for illiterate gathering.
Q.5. “Woodblock print came to Europe after 1295”. Give any three reasons to explain the above statement. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. (i) Paper reached Europe through the Silk Route in the 11th century.
(ii) In 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer, returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China. He brought with him the knowledge of woodblock printing.
(iii) Italy began producing with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.
Q.6. Trace the growth and development of print technology.
Or
How had the earliest print technology developed in the world ? Explain.
Ans. (i) Print technology in the 6th and 7th century : From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.
(ii) Role of travellers and explorers: Marco Polo, a great explorer reached Italy after several years of exploration in China in the year 1295. Marco Polo brought back with him the technology of woodblock printing. Now Italians started publishing books with woodblocks. The technology became popular in other parts of Europe, as well.
(iii) Gutenberg and the printing press : The major turning point in the growth of print technology came in 1448 when Johann Gutenberg invented the first printing press. The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.
(iv) Print in the 19th century and 20th century : By the late eighteenth century, the press came to be made out of metal. Through the nineteenth century, there were a series of further innovations in printing technology. By the mid-nineteenth century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power- driven cylindrical press.
Q.7. What did the spread of print culture in 19th century mean to the Reformers ?
Ans. (i) In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg. It challenged the Church to debate his ideas. 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.
(ii) In India the print started intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brah- manical priesthood and idolatry.
(iii) Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871).
(iv) In the twentieth century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, wrote powerfully on caste and their writings were read by people all over India.
Q.8. What restrictions were imposed by the Vernacular Press Act on the Indian Press ? Explain. [CBSE-2011]
Or
In what ways the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was a repressive step by the Government ? Explain. [CBSE-2011]
Ans. (i) The British government began to perceive vernacular newspapers as a threat to its rule. This led to the enactment of Vernacular Press Act in 1878.
(ii) It provided the government with extensive right to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular newspapers.
(iii) The government started regularly tracking the vernacular newspapers.
(iv) For any report which proved anti-British rule, the newspaper was first warned.
(v) For the second mistake, there was provision to seize the press and confiscate the machinery.
