Printing and its Impact on Disseminating Information

• Printing is the ultimate technology for disseminating information and ideas
• Printing has shaped modern society and culture

The First Printed Books

• The earliest printing technology developed in China, Japan, and Korea
• From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper against inked woodblocks
• Traditional Chinese books were accordion-folded and stitched at the side
• Superbly skilled calligraphers inked the carved woodblocks
• By the 17th century, as urban culture grew in China, the use of print diversified
• Print was no longer just a medium for scholars and government officials
• Merchants used print in their everyday lives to collect trade information
• Reading increasingly became a leisure activity
• The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, and other literary genres
• Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays
• This new reading culture was accompanied by new technologies
• Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the late 19th century as Western powers established their outposts in China
• Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture

Print in Japan

• Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology to Japan around AD 768-770
• The oldest Japanese book, a Buddhist Diamond Sutra printed in AD 868, contains six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations
• Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards, and paper money
• During the medieval period (11th -16th Centuries), books were cheap and abundant
• Publishing flourished in Japan
• Edo (present-day Tokyo) became an urban centre in the 18th century
• Increased literacy rates led to the demand for books
• Lending libraries were popular
• Booksellers opened shops and publishing became widespread
• Diverse publications included works of fiction, illustrations, and books on women, musical instruments and calculations, tea ceremony and flower arrangements, and proper etiquette and cooking

Print Comes to Europe

• Knowledge of woodblock printing travelled to Europe after Marco Polo’s return in 1295
• Europeans began using woodblocks to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with simple, brief texts
• Books were still handwritten by scribes
• Woodblock printing gradually became more popular
• The demand for books increased
• Copying manuscripts was a slow, laborious, and expensive business
• Woodblocks were only used for short texts and images
• The breakthrough occurred in Strasbourg, France, where Johann Gutenberg developed the first-known printing press in the 1430s
• Gutenberg used metal movable type
• Gutenberg’s knowledge of polishing stones, expertise in creating moulds, and lead and antimony to melt metal into durable type helped him develop this new technology
• The first book he printed was the Bible
• About 180 copies were printed; each took three years to produce by hand
• This was fast compared to the previous methods
• By the 1480s, printing presses had been set up in most of the major cities of Europe

The Shift from Hand Printing to Mechanical Printing

• Print technology spread rapidly throughout Europe during the fifteenth century
• Printers in Italy began printing books in classical Roman letters
• Metal type imitated the ornamental handwriting styles
• As the number of printing presses grew, competition among printers intensified
• Printers began adding woodcut illustrations to books
• They printed in colour
• Printers employed various marketing strategies to sell their products
• Booksellers travelled to different countries to sell their wares
• Print fairs were held to showcase the latest publications
• By the end of the fifteenth century, over 20 million copies of printed books had flooded the markets in Europe
• This shift from hand printing to mechanical printing had a profound impact on European society and culture

The Print Revolution and its Impact

• Print culture changed people’s relationship to information and knowledge
• It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of thinking

A New Reading Public

• Printing reduced the cost of books
• The time and labour required to produce each book was reduced
• Multiple copies could be produced with greater ease
• Books flooded the market, reaching an expanding readership
• Access to books created a new culture of reading
• Earlier, reading was restricted to the elite
• 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
• Before print, books were not only expensive but could not be produced in sufficient numbers
• Now books could reach out to a wider section of people
• If earlier there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being

Religion and Debate

• Print culture facilitated the circulation of new ideas
• It provided a platform for debate and discussion
• Print encouraged critical thinking and the questioning of established authority
• In 1517, Martin Luther, a German monk, challenged the Catholic Church
• He wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising the practices and rituals of the Church
• These were printed and circulated widely
• This led to a division within the Church and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation
• Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely
• This was a new visual culture with woodcuts illustrating title pages
• Pictures and caricatures of the pope were circulated
• Reformers used print to propagate their ideas
• Print and popular religious literature stimulated many interpretations of faith
• Even among those who were illiterate

The Reading Mania

• By the end of the eighteenth century, literacy rates had risen in Europe
• In some parts of Europe literacy rates were as high as 60 to 80 percent.
• As literacy and schools spread across Europe, there was a virtual reading mania
• People wanted to read more and more
• New forms of popular literature appeared
• Publishers printed popular romances, folk tales, and almanacs
• Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages, selling cheap books
• Then there were the chapbooks sold by petty pedlars known as chapmen
• These were pocket-sized books that were sold for a penny
• The periodical press developed which combined current affairs with entertainment
• Newspapers and journals carried information about war and trade, as well as the development in other places.
• The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common people
• Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published
• Maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed
• Isaac Newton’s discoveries were published
• The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed and read

Print Culture and the French Revolution

• Print culture played a crucial role in the French Revolution
• Print popularized the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers
• Thinkers such as Voltaire and Rousseau had disseminated critical ideas
• This provided a new perspective on reason
• They questioned the traditional social order
• They promoted the idea of individual rights and freedoms
• By the 1780s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their morality
• This literature questioned existing norms and beliefs
• This created a critical public opinion that fuelled the French Revolution

The Nineteenth Century

• The nineteenth century saw vast technological improvements in printing
• Richard M. Hoe perfected the power-driven cylindrical press
• This could print 8,000 sheets per hour
• This press was particularly useful for printing newspapers
• In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed
• This could print up to 12,000 sheets per hour
• These developments led to a surge in printing and a corresponding decline in the cost of books
• Books were produced on a massive scale
• Publishers developed new marketing strategies
• They hired writers to write specifically for them
• They serialized important novels in magazines
• Cheap editions were introduced to cater to a wider audience
• The introduction of railways led to the quick transportation of newspapers.

India and the World of Print

• Before printing, manuscripts were the primary form of written material in India
• Manuscripts were fragile and difficult to handle
• They had to be carefully preserved
• Manuscripts were written on palm leaves or handmade paper
• Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated
• They were sewn together to preserve them
• Manuscripts were available in different languages and scripts
• They catered to a diverse readership
• Manuscripts were not widely accessible
• They were costly and time-consuming to produce
• Ordinary people could not afford them
• This made knowledge inaccessible to most

Print Comes to India

• The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-16th century
• Jesuit priests published several books, mainly religious tracts
• By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in Konkani and Kannada languages
• Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin
• In 1713, the Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts
• The English East India Company imported a printing press to Calcutta in 1780
• James Augustus Hickey began editing the Bengal Gazette
• This was a weekly journal that was critical of the Company’s administration
• Hickey was persecuted by the Company because of his criticism
• He is regarded as one of the pioneers of print culture in India

Religious Reform and Public Debates

• Print culture played a significant role in religious reform and public debates in India
• Print made it possible to disseminate religious texts and ideas to a wide audience
• It provided a platform for religious reformers to express their views
• The reformers could challenge established religious beliefs and practices
• Print encouraged public debate and discussion on religious issues
• From the early nineteenth century, as print culture developed, religious issues became widely debated
• Different groups tried to influence the public using print
• Some people criticised existing practices and campaigned for reform
• Others countered the arguments of reformers
• They defended traditional practices
• In Bengal, Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821
• The orthodox Hindus commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions
• In 1822, two Persian newspapers, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar, were published
• The Gujarati newspaper, Bombay Samachar, was published in the same year
• The debates were carried out in Indian languages as well
• Increasingly, print provided a space for expression and encouraged the discussion of new ideas

New Forms of Publication

• Print culture not only facilitated the dissemination of religious and political ideas
• It stimulated the emergence of new literary forms
• Novels, short stories, essays, and other forms of writing were printed and circulated
• These new literary forms catered to the tastes of a wider audience
• By the late nineteenth century, a new visual culture was emerging
• With the setting up of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced
• Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation
• Cheap prints and calendars became popular, even in poor households
• By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being printed in journals and newspapers
• These commented on social and political issues

Print and the Poor People

• Cheap books and pamphlets were sold in the 19th century
• Public libraries were set up from the early twentieth century
• These libraries were initially located in cities and towns
• In the late nineteenth century, caste discrimination became a prominent issue in India
• Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his book Gulamgiri (1871)
• In the twentieth century, B.R. Ambedkar and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker also wrote extensively on caste
• Their writings were read by people all over India
• Local protest movements and sects also created a lot of popular journals and tracts criticising ancient scriptures
• In the late nineteenth century, several Muslim sects published Urdu and Persian leaflets
• These leaflets explained their views and countered the views of others
• The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands of fatwas
• These fatwas told Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in everyday life
• All these were meant to advise people and control their conduct in public life

Women and Print

• Print culture had a profound impact on women’s lives
• It provided women with access to education and knowledge
• It enabled women to express their views and opinions
• In the early nineteenth century, many women were encouraged to read and write
• Liberal husbands and fathers began educating women at home
• Some women joined schools and colleges
• Many journals began publishing articles on women’s education and empowerment
• Some even offered prizes for the best essay written by women
• When women started writing, they wrote about their own lives and experiences
• They wrote about issues such as domestic violence, discrimination, and lack of opportunities
• They also wrote about their hopes and dreams for the future
• In the 1860s, a number of Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women
• Tarabai Shinde, a woman educated at home, published Stri Purush Tulana, a critique of the social differences between men and women
• Pandita Ramabai wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women
• These writings had a profound impact on society
• They raised awareness about the problems faced by women
• They inspired women to fight for their rights
• Many poor and low-caste women also began to write about their experiences
• They wrote about the discrimination and oppression they faced
• They also wrote about their hopes and dreams for the future
• In the 1880s, the novels began to create a new understanding of women

Print and Censorship

• Governments were concerned about the power of print
• They feared that print could spread seditious ideas
• They tried to control what was printed and circulated
• These measures were aimed at suppressing dissent and maintaining order
• Before 1798, the East India Company had few controls over the press
• After the 1820s, the Company began to introduce stricter controls
• It passed laws to regulate the press
• The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 was modelled on the Irish Press Laws
• It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials
• In 1908, when Punjab revolutionaries were deported, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote about them with great sympathy in his Kesari
• This led to his imprisonment
• During World War I, the government introduced press censorship to suppress dissent

Printing is a technology for disseminating information and ideas. It has shaped modern society and culture. The earliest printing technology developed in China, Japan, and Korea. By the 17th century, the use of print diversified.