CBSE Class 10 Social Sciences Print Culture and Modern World SAQ

Q.1. How were earlier books printed (before 15th century) ? Explain.
Ans. (I) The earlier kind of print technology was a system of hand printing.
(ii) From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper also invented there against the inked surface of woodblocks. As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side.
(iii) Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy.

Q.2. How did China remain a major producer of printed materials for a long time ? [CBSE 2013]
Or
“The imperial state in China, was the major producer of printed material.” Support this statement with examples. [CBSE 2013. 2012. 2014]
Ans. Textbooks for the civil service examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state
(ii) Merchants used print in their everyday life as they collected trade information.
(iii)The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, romantic plays
(iv) Rich women began to read and many women began publishing their poetry and plays.

Q.3. ‘By the 17th century, as urban culture Ans. bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified.’ Explain by giving examples. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
How did a new reading culture bloom in China ? Explain.
Ans. (i) With the blooming of urban culture, the uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar-officials.
(ii) Merchants also started using print in their everyday life, to collect trade information Reading increasingly became a leisure activity.
(iii) The readers preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces and romantic plays.
(iv) Rich women began to read a great variety of books and many women began to publish their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works, and courtesans started writing about their lives.

Q.4. Describe the progress of print in Japan. [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2011. 2013]
Ans. (i) Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around AD 768-770. The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money.
(ii) In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and abundant.
(iii) 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 os Tokyo), illustrated collections of paintings depicted an elegant urban culture, involving artists, courtesans, and tea house gatherings.

Q.5. How had the earliest printing technology developed in the world ? Explain. [CBSE 2012]
Ans. (i) The earnest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan, and Korea.
(ii) Up to 6th century, the print was used only by scholar officials.
(iii) Then the Buddhist missionaries introduced hand printing technology,
(iv) Marco Polo brought woodblock printing from China to Italy.
(v) The invention of the printing press proved great miracle in spreading knowledge.

Q.6. Who was Marco Polo ? What was his contribution to print culture ? [CBSE 2013]
Ans. Marco Polo was a great Italian explorer.
Contribution :
(i) in 1295. Marco polo returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China.
(ii) He brought the knowledge of woodblock printing with him.
(iii) Now in Italy, books started to be produced with woodblocks and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.

Q.7. How did Gutenberg personalise the printed hooks suiting to the tastes and requirement of others ? [CBSE 2012]
Ans. (i)Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns.
(ii) Illustrations were painted in the painting school of the buyer’s choice,
(iii) In the books printed for the rich blank spares were left for decoration.
(iv) Each buyer could choose the design, verses were highlighted by hand with colours,
(v) The overall outlook of the book was properly taken care of.

Q.8. Explain the main features of the first printed Bible. [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Or
Describe any three main features of the first printed Bible. [CBSE 2014]
Ans: (i) About 18O copies were printed ar.d it took three years to produce them.
(ii) The text was printed in the new Gutenberg press with metal type, but the borders were carefully designed, painted and illuminated by hand by artists.
(iii) Every page of each copy was different.
(iv) Different colours were used within the letters in various places.

Q.9. ‘The shift from handprinting to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.’ Explain.
Ans. (i) In the hundred years between 1450 and 1550. the printing presses were set up in most of the countries of Europe.
(ii) Printers from Germany travelled to other countries, seeking work and helping to start new presses. As the number of printing presses grew, book production boomed
(iii) The second half of the fifteenth century saw around 20 million copies of printed books flooding the markets in Europe. The number went up in the sixteenth century to about 200 million copies.
(iv) It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things

Q.10. How did printing press create a new- reading public ? Explain. [CBSF. Sept. 2013]
Or
“There was a virtual reading mania in European countries in the 18th century”. Explain the factors responsible for this virtual reading mania.
Ans. (i) Low cost of production : With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books. The time mid 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.
(ii) Accessibility of books : Access to books created a new culture of reading. 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. 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.
(iii) Increase in literacy rate : Through the. seventeenth and eighteenth centuries literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe. 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. As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading mania.

Q.11. Explain the common conviction of people in the mid-18th century about the books and print culture, [CBSE 2013]
Ans. (i) By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment.
(ii) Many believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect would rule.
(iii) Louise-sebastian Mercier, a novelist in Prance declared. “The printing press is most powerful engine of progress and public- opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.”

Q.12. State any three points of importance of penny chapbooks. [CBSE Sept. 2010.2011]
Or
Describe some of the new printed books which were sold by the pedlars in villages in the eighteenth century Europe. [CBSE-2012, 2014]
Ans. (i) Pocket sue books that were sold by travelling pedlars called chapmen
(ii) These became popular from the time of the sixteenth-century print revolution.
(iii) It includes many kinds of printed material such as pamphlets, political and religious tracts, nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales, children’s literature and almanacs. Where there were illustrations, they would be popular prints.

Q.13. ‘Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers.’ Explain. [CBSE 2014]
Or
How did ideas about science, reason and rationality find their way into popular literature in the 18th century Europe ? [CBSE Sept. 2010]
Ans. (i) Collectively, the writings of thinkers provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism.
(ii)Scholars and thinkers argued for the rule of reason rather than custom, and demanded that everything be judged through the application of reason and rationality,
(iii) They attacked the sacred authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state, thus eroding the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition.
(iv) The Writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read Widely: and those who read these books saw the world through new eyes, eyes that were questioning, critical and rational

Q.14. How did the ideas of scientists and philosophers become more accessible to common people after the beginning of print revolution in Europe ? [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2012]
Ans. (i) The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common people.
(ii) Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed.
(iii) When scientists like Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could influence n much wider circle of scientifically minded readers
(iv) The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine. Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed and read. Thus their ideas about science, reasoning and nationality found their way into popular literature.

Q.15. Who was Louise-Sebastien Mercier ? What were his Ideas about print ?
Or
‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world ! Tremble before the virtual writer ! Explain this statement. [CBSE 2014]
Ans. Louise-Sebastien Mercier was a French dramatist and a novelist in the eighteenth century. He declared “The printing press a the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.’ In most of his novels, he had shown his love for reading. In most of his novels, the heroes are transformed by the acts of reading 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 !”

Q.16 Explain any three features of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print in India.
[CBSE Sept. 2010. 2011. 2012. 2013]
Ans. (i) Handwritten were copied on palm leaves or on handmade papers.
(ii) Pages were beautifully illustrated.
(iii)They were pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation,
(iv) Manuscripts were available in vernacular languages.
(v) Manuscripts Highly expensive and fragile,
(vi) They could no: he read easily as script was written in different styles.

Q.17 “The Bengal Gazette was a commercial paper open to all. but influenced by none.” Justify the claim of James Augustus Hickey. [CBSE 2012]
Ans. 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’ So it was private English enterprise, proud of its independence from colonial influence, chat began English printing in India. 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. 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.

Q.18. Why did the woodblock method become popular in Europe ? [CBSE 2015]
Or
What were the drawbacks of the handwritten manuscripts ?
Or
Mention the shortcomings of manuscripts. [CBSE Sept. 2011, 2012, 2014]
Ans. (i) The production of handwritten manuscripts could not meet the ever-increasing demand for books.
(ii) Copying was an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.
(iii) The manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle and could not be carried around or read easily. By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures with simple, brief texts.

Q.19. From the early 19th century, there were intense debates around the religious issues. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the nature of debate also. Explain by giving examples.
Ans. (i) 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. A wider public could now participate in these public discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.
(ii) This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a variety of arguments. To reach a wider audience, the ideas were printed in the everyday, spoken language of ordinary people.
(iii) Raja Ram Mohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and 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.

Q.20. Explain the steps which were taken by the British government or the colonial government to control the freedom of press.
Ans. (i) Earlier measures : 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.
(ii) Regulations of Calcutta Supreme Court: 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 Brtish 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.
(iii) Vernacular Press Act : After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed. Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the ‘native’ press. 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.