Kristensmith Taylor

Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Important Dateline

15th CE: The Silk Route still existed that linked vast regions of Asia and Asia with Europe and North America.

1730s: Coming up of Factories in England

1882-1914: The World was transforming very rapidly.

19th century: Corn Law in England

1854: The first modern cotton mill was set up in England.

1874: The first spinning mill was set up in Bengal

1914-18: First World War

1920s: Mass production of cars by Henry Ford.

1920s: Strong Rapid increase in the US economy.

1923: The USA resourced exporting capital to the rest of the world and became the largest overseas lender.

1929: Beginning of Great Depression in the USA

1929-34: Period of Great Depression

1939-1945: The period of Second World War.

1941: German attack on Russia

1944: Bretton Woods Conference

1949: Communist Rule in China.

Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Important Concepts And Terms

Dissenter: One who refuses to accept established beliefs and practices.

Indentured Labour: A bonded labourer under contract to work for an employer for a specific amount of time, to pay off his passage to a new country or home.

Tariff: Tax imposed on a country’s imports from the rest of the world. Tariffs are levied at the point of entry, i.e., at the border or the airport.

Exchange Rates: They link national currencies for purposes of international trade. There are broadly two kinds of exchange rates: fixed exchange rate and floating exchange rate.

Fixed Exchange Rates: When exchange rates are fixed and governments intervene to prevent movements in them.

Flexible or Floating Exchange Rates: These rates fluctuate depending on the demand and supply of currencies in foreign exchange markets, in principle without interference by governments.

Cowries or Seashells, are used as a form of currency.

MNCs: Multinational Corporations are large companies that operate in several countries at the same time.

Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Ncert Textbook Exercises

Question 1. Give two examples of different types of global exchanges which took place before the seventeenth century, choosing one example from Asia and one from America.

Answer:

Examples of different types of global exchanges which took place before the seventeenth century:

1. Textiles, spices and Chinese pottery were exchanged by China, India and Southeast Asia in return for gold and silver from Europe.
2. Gold and foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, tomatoes and chillies were first exported from America to Europe.

Question 2. Explain how the global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the colonisation of America.

Answer:

The global transfer of disease in the pre-modern world helped in the colonisation of America because the native American Indians were not immune to the diseases that the settlers and the colonisers brought with them.

The Europeans were more or less immune to smallpox, but the native Americans, having been cut off from the rest of the world for millions of years, had no defence against it.

These germs killed and wiped out whole communities, paving the way for foreign domination. Weapons and soldiers could be destroyed or captured, but diseases could not be fought against.

Question 3. Write a note to explain the effects of the following:

1. The British government’s decision to abolish the Corn Laws.
2. The coming of rinderpest to Africa.
3. The death of men of working age in Europe because of the World War.
4. The Great Depression on the Indian economy.
5. The decision of MNCs to relocate production to Asian countries.

Answer:

1. The British government’s decision to abolish the Corn Laws resulted in losses for the agricultural sector, but progress in the industrial sector.
   • Food began to be imported more cheaply into Britain, and thousands of workers involved in cultivation became unemployed.
   • However, consumption increased and the industrial sector grew, with more workers being available in cities than in rural areas.
2. The coming of rinderpest to Africa caused a loss of livelihood for countless Africans.
   • Using this situation to their advantage, colonising nations conquered and subdued Africa by monopolising scarce cattle resources to force the Africans into the labour market.
3. The death of men of working age in Europe because of the World War, reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe, leading to a steady decline in household incomes and a consequent struggle to meet the living expenditure by families whose men were handicapped or killed.
4. The Great Depression had a major impact on the Indian economy. Between 1928 and 1934, it reduced Indian imports and exports by nearly half.
   • Wheat prices too fell by 50% during this time. More than the urban areas, the agricultural sector (which dominated livelihoods in rural lands) was badly hit by the Great Depression.
5. The decision of the MNCs to relocate production to Asian countries led to a stimulation of world trade and capital flows.
   • This relocation was on account of low-cost structure and lower wages in Asian countries. It also benefited the Asian nations because employment increased, and this resulted in quick economic transformation as well.

Question 4. Write two examples from history to show the impact of technology on food availability.

Answer:

The impact of technology on food availability was manifold in the late nineteenth century.

Faster railways, lighter wagons and larger ships helped transport food more cheaply and quickly from production units to even faraway markets.

Also, refrigerated ships helped transport perishable foods such as meat, butter and eggs over long distances.

Question 5. What is meant by the Bretton Woods Agreement?

Answer:

The Bretton Woods Agreement was finalised in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, USA.

It established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to preserve global economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.

These institutions also dealt with external surpluses and deficits of member nations and financed post-war reconstructions.

Question 6. Imagine that you are an indentured Indian labourer in the Caribbean. Drawing from the details in this chapter, write a letter to your family describing your life and feelings.

Answer:

Indentured Indian labourers in the Caribbean – facts signed a contract stating that they would return to India after working for five years at a plantation.

Belonged to eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, central India and the dry districts of Tamil Nadu; migrants took up the overseas jobs hoping to escape poverty and oppression in their home villages.

Migrants were not even informed about the long sea voyages, and some unwilling ones were abducted as well; also known as “the new system of slavery”.

Harsh living and working conditions; few legal rights; many escaped into the wilds; some developed new art forms for expression; some returned home after the contract period, while others stayed on.

Question 7. Explain the three types of movements or flows within international economic exchange. Find one example of each type of flow which involved India and Indians, and write a short account of it.

Answer:

The three types of movements or flows within the international economic exchange are the flow of trade, the flow of labour and the flow of capital.

These can be explained as the trade in agricultural products, migration of labour, and financial loans to and from other nations.

India was a hub of trade in the pre-modern world, and it exported textiles and spices in return for gold and silver from Europe.

Many different foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies and sweet potatoes came to India from America after Columbus discovered it.

In the field of labour, indentured labour was provided for mines, plantations and factories abroad, in huge numbers, in the nineteenth century.

This was an instrument of colonial domination by the British. Lastly, Britain took generous loans from the USA to finance the World War. Since India was an English colony, the impact of these loan debts was felt in India too.

The British government increased taxes, and interest rates, and lowered the prices of products it bought from the colony. Indirectly, but strongly, this affected the Indian economy and people.

Question 8. Explain the causes of the Great Depression.

Answer:

The Great Depression was a result of many different factors. The post-war global economy was weak. Also, agricultural over-production proved to be a nuisance, which was made worse by falling food grain prices.

To counter this, farmers began to increase production and bring even more produce to the markets to maintain their annual incomes.

This led to such a glut of food grains that prices plummeted further and farm produce was left to rot. Most countries took loans from the US, but American overseas lenders were worried about the same.

When they decreased the amount of loans, the countries economically dependent on the US loans faced an acute crisis. In Europe, this led to the failure of major banks and currencies such as the British pound sterling.

In a bid to protect the American economy, the USA doubled import duties. This worsened the world trade scenario. All these factors contributed to the Great Depression.

It affected the USA the worst on account of its being a global loan provider and the biggest industrial nation.

Question 9. Explain what is referred to as the G-77 countries. In what ways can G-77 be seen as a reaction to the activities of the Bretton Woods twins?

Answer:

G-77 countries is an abbreviation for the group of 77 countries that demanded a new International Economic Order (NIEO).

A system that would give them real control over their natural resources, without being victims of neo-colonialism, i.e., a new form of colonialism in trade practised by the former colonial powers.

The G-77 can be seen as a reaction to the activities of the Bretton Woods twins (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank).

Because these two institutions were designed to meet the financial needs of industrial and developed countries and did nothing for the economic growth of the former colonies and developing nations.

Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Short Questions And Answers

Question 1. Why were Europeans attracted to Africa in the late nineteenth century? Mention any three reasons.

Answer:

1. Africa had vast resources of land and minerals. Its population was very small and land was abundant.
2. Europeans were hoping to establish plantations and mines to produce crops and minerals for export to Europe. They faced a shortage of labour willing to work for wages. However, they used many methods like heavy taxes to recruit and retain labour.
3. In Africa, the Industrial Revolution did not take place. Also, African countries were militantly weak and backward.

Read and Learn More Class 10 Social Science Solutions

Question 2. What were the advantages of the invention of refrigerated ships?

Answer:

1. Refrigerated ships reduced the shipping cost and lowered meat prices in Europe.
2. The poor in Europe could now consume a more varied diet.
3. To the earlier, monotony of bread and potatoes many, not all, could add meat, butter or egg.
4. Better living conditions promoted social peace within the country and support for imperialism abroad.

Question 3. State three examples to show that the world changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America.
Or
State three examples to show that the pre-modern world changed with the discovery of new sea routes to America.

Answer:

1. Many of our common foods such as potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chillies, sweet potatoes, and so on were introduced to Europe from America. These crops made a difference between life and death. The poor began to eat better and live longer in England with the introduction of potatoes.
2. Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines located in present-day Peru and Mexico also enhanced Europe’s wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
3. It encouraged the slave trade. European traders captured slaves in Africa and took them to America, where they worked on plantations. Europe became the centre of world trade.
4. Religious dissenters were persecuted in Europe. Thousands therefore fled Europe for America.
5. Diseases like smallpox, germs of which were carried by Europeans to America decimated the whole community who had no immunity to it.

Question 4. What was the importance of the Indian trade for the British?

Answer:

1. Trade surplus: Britain had a trade surplus with India. Britain used this surplus to balance its trade deficit with other countries.
2. Home charges: Britain’s trade surplus in India also helped to pay the so-called home charges that included private remittance homes by British officials and traders, interest payments on India’s external debt and pensions of British officials in India.
3. Major supplier of cotton: India remained a major supplier of raw cotton to the British which was required to feed the cotton textile industry of Britain.
4. Supplier of indentured workers: Many indentured workers from Bihar, UP, and central India have migrated to other countries to work in mines and plantations.

Question 5. How did the Bretton Woods System work?

Answer:

1. The International Monetary System is the system linking national currencies and the monetary system.
2. The Bretton Woods system was based on fixed exchange rates. In this system, the national currencies were pegged to the dollar at a fixed exchange rate.
3. The Bretton Woods system inaugurated an era of unprecedented growth of trade and incomes for the Western industrial nations.

Question 6. Why did the European employers find it difficult to recruit labour in Africa? Write two methods they used to recruit and retain labour.

Answer:

The European employers found it difficult to recruit labour in Africa because historically, Africa had abundant land and a relatively small population.

For centuries, land and livestock sustained African livelihoods and people rarely worked for wages. Employers used the following methods to recruit and retain labour:

1. Heavy taxes were imposed which could be paid only by working for wages on plantations and mines.
2. Inheritance laws were changed so that peasants were displaced from the land. Only one member of a family was allowed to inherit the land, as a result of which the others were pushed into the labour market.

Question 7. Explain why the economy of the USA was strong in the early 1920s. Would you agree that the roots of the Great Depression lay in this ‘boom”? State reasons for your answer.

Answer:

The economy of the USA was strong in the early 1920s because:

1. Mass production became a characteristic feature of industrial production in the USA. Mass production lowered the costs and prices of engineered goods.
2. There was a spurt in the purchase of refrigerators, washing machines, radios, gramophone players through a system of hire purchase’. It was also fuelled by a boom in house construction and home ownership, financed once again by loans.

The housing and consumer boom of the 1920s created the basis of prosperity in the US. Yes; the roots of the Great Depression lay in this boom because of the overproduction in the agricultural and industrial sectors.

Question 8. What was Corn Law? Why was the Corn Law abolished? What was the result of abolishing the Corn Law?
Or
Explain the effects of the British government’s decision to abolish the Corn Law.

Answer:

1. The law allowing the government to restrict the import of corn was commonly known as ‘Corn Law’. This was under the pressure of landed groups.
2. The Corn Law was abolished because industrialists and urban dwellers were unhappy with high food prices as a result of the Corn Law.
   • After the Corn Law was scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country.
   • British agriculture was unable to compete with imports.
   • Vast areas of land were now left uncultivated, and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work. They flocked to the cities or migrated overseas.
   • As the food prices fell, consumption in Britain rose. From the mid-nineteenth century, faster industrial growth in Britain also led to higher incomes, and therefore more food imports.

Question 9. What is G-77? What were its demands?

Answer:

G-77 refers to an organised group of most of the developing countries that did not benefit from the fast growth of the Western economies experienced in the 1950s and 1960s.

Demands of G-77: It demanded a New International Economic Order (NIEO).

By the NIEO, they meant a system that would give them real control over their natural resources, more development assistance, fairer prices for raw materials, and better access to their manufactured goods in developed countries’ markets.

Question 10. Why did thousands of people flee away from Europe to America in the 19th century? State any three reasons.

Answer:

Thousands of people fled away from Europe to America in the 19th century because:

1. After the Corn Law was scrapped, food could be imported into Britain more cheaply than it could be produced within the country. British agriculture was unable to compete with imports.
2. Vast areas of land were now left uncultivated, and thousands of men and women were thrown out of work. They flocked to the cities or migrated overseas.
3. Deadly diseases were widespread.
4. Religious conflicts were common and religious dissenters were persecuted.

Question 11. Write any three factors responsible for indentured labour migration from India.

Answer:

1. It was a world of faster economic growth as well as great misery, higher incomes for some and poverty for others, technological advances in some areas and new forms of coercion in others.
2. Migrants were hoping to escape poverty or oppression in their home villages.
3. Agents also tempted the prospective migrants by providing false information about final destinations, modes of travel, the nature of work, and living and working conditions.
4. Often migrants were not even told that they were to embark on a long sea voyage. Sometimes, agents even forcibly abducted less willing migrants.

Question 12. What is meant by the Bretton Woods System? Explain.

Answer:

The main aim of the post-war international economic system was to preserve economic stability and full employment in the industrial world.

Its framework was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire, the USA.

The post-war international economic system is also often described as the Bretton Woods System.

It established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with external surpluses and deficits of its member nations and the World Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The IMF and the World Bank are referred to as the Bretton Woods institutions or sometimes, the Bretton Woods twins.

Question 13. What was ‘Corn Law’? Who forced the abolition of the Corn Law?

Answer:

The law allowing the government to restrict the import of corn was commonly known as ‘Corn Law’. It was due to pressure from landed groups.

Population growth from the late eighteenth century had increased the demand for food grains in Britain.

As urban centres expanded and industry grew, the demand for agricultural products went up, pushing up food grain prices.

Unhappy with high food prices, industrialists and urban dwellers forced the abolition of the Corn Law.

Question 14. Explain three major features of the global agricultural economy that took shape towards the close of the nineteenth century.

Answer:

They are as follows:

1. Food no longer came from a nearby village or town, but, from thousands of miles away.
2. It was not grown by a peasant tilling his own land, but by an agricultural worker, perhaps recently arrived, who was now working on a large farm that only a generation ago had most likely been a forest.
3. It was transported by railway, built for that very purpose, and by ships which were increasingly manned in these decades by low-paid workers from southern Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.

Question 15. What was rinderpest? State any two effects of the coming of rinderpest of Africa.

Answer:

Rinderpest was a devastating, fast-spreading disease caused by cattle plague. It arrived in Africa in the late 1880s. It was carried by the infected cattle imported from British Asia to feed the Italian soldiers invading Eritrea in East Africa.

Effects:

1. Rinderpest entered Africa from the east, and moved to the west like ‘forest fire’.
2. It killed about 90% of the cattle. The loss of cattle destroyed African livelihoods.
3. Planters, mine owners and colonial governments now successfully monopolised what scarce cattle resources remained, to strengthen their power and to force Africans into the labour market.
4. Control over the scarce resource of cattle enabled the European colonisers to conquer and subdue Africa.

Question 16. What was the impact of the Great Depression of 1929 on the Indian economy?
Or
Write any three impacts of the Great Depression of 1929 on the Indian Economy.

Answer:

Impact of the Great Depression on Indian economy:

1. As international prices crashed, prices in India also plunged. Between 1928 and 1934, wheat prices in India fell by 50 per cent. Peasants and farmers suffered more than urban dwellers.
2. The colonial government refused to reduce revenue demands. Jute producers were hit badly as jute prices fell when gunny exports collapsed.
3. Across India, peasants’ indebtedness increased. They used up their savings, mortgaged lands, and sold whatever jewellery and precious metals they had to meet their expenses.
4. The depression proved less grim for urban India. Because of falling prices, those with fixed incomes – say town-dwelling landowners who received rents and middle-class salaried employees – now found themselves better off. This was because everything cost less.
5. Industrial investment also grew as the government extended tariff protection to industries, under the pressure of nationalist opinion.

Question 17. Explain the impact of the First World War on Britain’s economy.
Or
Assess the impact of the First World War on Britain’s economy.

Answer:

1. After the War, Britain found it difficult to recapture its earlier position of dominance in the Indian market and to compete with Japan internationally.
2. Moreover, to finance war expenditures, Britain had borrowed liberally from the US. This meant that, at the end of the War, Britain was burdened with huge external debts.
3. The War had led to an economic boom, i.e., a huge increase in demand, production and employment. When the war boom ended, production contracted and unemployment increased.
4. At the same time, the government reduced bloated war expenditures to bring them into line with peacetime revenues. These developments led to huge job losses.

Question 18. What was the impact of the First World War on the socio-economic conditions of the world? Write any three points.

Answer:

1. Entire societies were reorganised for war – as men went to battle, women stepped into undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do.
2. The war led to the snapping of economic links between some of the world’s largest economic powers which were now fighting each other to pay for them.
3. So, Britain borrowed large sums of money from the US banks as well as the US public. Thus, the war transformed the US from being an international debtor to an international creditor.
4. Many agricultural economies were also in crisis. Before the war, Eastern Europe was a major supplier of wheat in the world market. The supply was disrupted during the War.

After the War, production revived and created a glut in wheat output. Grain prices fell, rural incomes declined, and farmers fell deeper into debt.

Question 19. Explain what we mean when we say that the world ‘shrank’ in the 1500s.
Or
“The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the 16th century.” Justify the statement.

Answer:

The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the 16th century because:

1. Europe’s soldiers discovered new sea routes to Asia and America.
2. The Indian subcontinent was the centre of bustling trade in Asia since ancient times. The discovery of new sea routes helped the Europeans to drive the trade towards Europe.
3. Besides mercantilist expansion, the spread of Christianity was another factor which guided the Europeans to travel to faraway regions.

Question 20. Briefly summarise the two lessons learnt by the economists and the politicians from the inter-war economic experience.

Answer:

Economists and politicians drew the following lessons from the inter-war economic experiences:

1. An industrial society based upon mass production cannot sustain itself without mass consumption. To ensure mass consumption, incomes have to be stable and high, and employment has to be adequate.
   • The markets can never fulfil the condition of full employment.
   • Therefore, governments should interfere to minimise shifts in output, prices and employment levels. Economic stability can be only ensured through government efforts.
2. The second lesson was linked to a country’s economic relations with other countries. The aim of full employment could only be achieved if the government had the authority to regulate the flow of goods, capital and labour.

Question 21. Who profits from jute cultivation according to the jute growers’ lament? Explain.

Answer:

The traders gained extensive profits from trading in jute. On the other hand, the growers and cultivators of jute led miserable lives, as the prices paid to them for their produce were very low.

Jute was cultivated in Bengal on a large scale. Its increasing demand in the world market forced the cultivators to produce more jute. They borrowed money and took loans to cultivate jute.

At the time of the Great Depression, the prices of jute products fell considerably. As a result, the cultivators faced many losses and suffered immensely.

Question 22. Discuss the importance of language and popular traditions in the creation of national identity.

Answer:

A person is identified as belonging to a particular nation by his cultural traditions. and the language that he speaks.

The languages as well as the traditional practices usually develop and get established over a long period of time. They give an identity to an individual wherever he is.

Thus, a French national will always speak the French language or follow French customs wherever he goes in the world.

Chapter 4 The Making Of A Global World Multiple Choice Questions And Answers

Question 1. What is Rinderpest?

1. A person
2. A cattle disease
3. A place
4. A monument

Answer: 2. A cattle disease

Question 2. Who made the best cutting decision?

1. Henry Ford
2. James Watt
3. James Ford
4. Henry Herold

Answer: 1. Henry Ford

Question 3. Which among the following were considered as Allies Power?

1. Britain, France, Russia
2. Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turk
3. Japan, France and Germany
4. Britain, Japan and Russia

Answer: 1. Britain, France, Russia

Question 4. Which one of the following institutions was established in the Bretton Woods Conference?

1. International Security Fund
2. International Monetary Fund
3. Indian Monetary Fund
4. International Labour Organisation

Answer: 2. International Monetary Fund

Question 5. Who adopted the concept of an assembly line to produce automobiles?

1. T. Coppola
2. V. S. Naipaul
3. Henry Ford
4. Ramesh Sarwan

Answer: 3. Henry Ford

Question 6. Which among the following countries were considered Axis Powers during the Second World War?

1. Nazi Germany, Japan, Italy
2. Britain, Germany, Russia
3. France, Germany, Italy
4. Britain, France, Russia and the US

Answer: 1. Nazi Germany, Japan, Italy

Question 7. Which one of the following did not travel along the silk routes in the pre-modern world?

1. Christian missionaries
2. Traders
3. Tourists
4. Muslim preachers

Answer: 3. Tourists

Question 8. Which one of the following is a Nobel Prize-winning writer who is a descendant of indentured labour from India?

1. Salman Rushdie
2. V. S. Naipaul
3. Arundhati Roy
4. Bob Marley

Answer: 2. V. S. Naipaul

Question 9. Which of the following West Indies cricketers trace their roots to indentured labour migrants from India?

1. Vivian Richards and Gary Sobers
2. Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo
3. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul
4. Brian Lara and Courtney Walsh

Answer: 3. Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Question 10. What is El Dorado in South America?

1. It was the place where Columbus landed
2. Where silver mines were located
3. A fabled city of gold
4. A famous slave market

Answer: 3. A fabled city of gold

Question 11. ‘Silk Route’ refers to:

1. Network of routes connecting China and Rome
2. Network of routes connecting India and Rome
3. Network of routes connecting China and India
4. Network of routes connecting Asia with Europe and Northern Africa

Answer: 4. Network of routes connecting Asia with Europe and Northern Africa

Question 12. What was the Bretton Woods system?

1. Post-war military system
2. Post-war political system
3. Post-war international economic system
4. None of these

Answer: 3. Post-war international economic system

Question 13. Which of the following groups demanded the Right to Vote for Adult Males in Britain during the 18th century?

1. The Christian Movement
2. Temperance Movement
3. The Dock Workers’ Movements
4. Chartism Movement

Answer: 3. The Dock Workers’ Movements

Question 14. Which of the following is the first European country that conquered America?

1. France
2. Britain
3. Spain
4. Germany

Answer: 3. Spain

Question 15. What do you mean by G-77?

1. Group of rich countries
2. Group of African countries
3. Group of Asian countries
4. Group of developing countries

Answer: 4. Group of developing countries

Question 1. Picture Based Question

Look at the given picture and answer the questions that follow:

(1) Who was Stanley? By whom and on what mission was he sent?

Answer:

Stanley was a known journalist and explorer. He was sent by the New York Herald on a mission to find Livingston. Livingston was a missionary and explorer who had been in Africa for several years.

(2) How did Stanley reach there?

Answer:

Like other European and American explorers of the time, Stanley went with arms.

(3) Who helped him there to fight with local tribes?

Answer:

He was helped by mobilised local hunters, warriors and labourers to fight with local tribes.

Question 2. Source Based Question

Read the extract taken from your NCERT Textbook, then answer the following questions:

In spite of my best efforts, I could not properly do the work that was allotted to me. In a few days, I got my hands bruised all over and I could not go to work for a week for which I was prosecuted and sent to jail for 14 days.

New emigrants find the tasks allotted to them extremely heavy and cannot complete them in a day… Deductions are also made from wages if the work is considered to have been done unsatisfactorily.

Many people cannot therefore earn their full wages and are punished in various ways. In fact, the labourers have to spend their period of indenture in great trouble.

(1) Name the source of this passage.

Answer:

The passage has been taken from the testimony of Ram Narain Tiwari. He was an indentured labourer. It has been taken from the Department of Commerce and Industry, Emigrant Branch, 1916.

(2) Why could the writer not properly do the work allotted to him?

Answer:

The writer could not do the allotted work properly because he got his hand bruised all over.

(3) What punishment was given to the writer for not going to work?

Answer:

He was prosecuted and sent to jail for 14 days.

Chapter 8 Novels Society And History Important Dateline

• 1719: Daniel Defoe’s novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’ was published.
• 1740: Circulating libraries were introduced.
• 1854: ‘Hard Times’ published.1857: Baba Padamji’s ‘Yamuna Paryatan’ was published.
• 1878: ‘Rajasekhara Caritamu’ published by Kandukuri virselingam
• 1889: The novel ‘Indulekha’ was published by O. Chandu Menon.
• 1894: Rudyard Kipling published Jungle Book.
• 1905: ‘Sultana’s Dream’ written by Rokeya Hossein.
• 1936: Prem Chand’s ‘Godan’ was published.
• 1956: Advaita Malla Barman’s “Titash Ekti’ Nadir Naam was published.

Chapter 8 Novels Society And History Important Concepts And Terms

Novel: A novel is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose.

Gentlemanly Classes: People who claimed noble birth and high social position. They were supposed to set the standard for proper behavior.

Epistolary: Written in the form of a series of letters.

Serialized: A format in which the story is published in installments, each part in a new issue of the journal.

Vernacular: The normal, spoken form of a language rather than the formal, literary form.

Satire: A form of representation through writing, drawing, painting, etc., that provides a criticism of society in a manner that is witty and clever.

Chapter 8 Novels Society And History Ncert Textbook Exercises

Question 1. Explain the following:

1. Social changes in Britain led to an increase in women readers.
2. What actions of Robinson Crusoe make us see him as a typical colonizer?
3. After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer people.
4. Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause.

Answer:

• As the middle classes became more affluent, women got more leisure to read and write novels. Also, novels began to explore the world of women, their emotions, identities, experiences, and problems.
  • Domestic life became an essential subject of novels – a field women had the authority to speak about.
• Robinson Crusoe’s actions that make us see him as a typical colonizer are many. Shipwrecked on an island inhabited by colored people, Crusoe treats them as inferior beings.
  • He is portrayed as “rescuing” a native and then making him a slave. He gives him the name Friday, without even caring to ask for his name.
  • Colonized people were seen as barbaric and primitive, and colonialism became their self-professed civilizer. Crusoe was a direct representation of this ideology of colonizers.
• After 1740, the readership of novels began to include poorer people because of the introduction of circulating libraries, low-priced books, and also because of the system of hiring out of books by the hour.
  • This made books easily available to poor people, who could not afford books earlier due to high costs and the absence of lending libraries.
• Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause because the novel was a powerful medium for expressing social defects and suggesting remedies for the same.
  • It also helped establish a relationship with the past. Since people from all walks of life could read novels, it was an easy way to popularise anti-colonial ideas.
  • It also helped bring about a sense of national unity among the people.

Question 2. Outline the changes in technology and society which led to an increase in readers of the novel in eighteenth-century Europe.

Answer:

1. Print-made novels to be read widely and become popular quickly.
2. Novels produced a number of common interests and a variety of readers.
3. Readers were drawn into the story and identified themselves with the lives of fictitious characters. They now could think about issues like love and marriage, and proper conduct for men and women.
4. Prosperity, due to industrialization, made new groups join the readership for novels. Besides the aristocratic and gentlemanly classes, new groups of lower-middle-class people such as shopkeepers and clerks joined in.
5. The rise in the earnings of authors freed them from the patronage of aristocrats. They could now experiment with different literary styles. The epistolary novel – Samuel Richardson’s Pamela – written in the 18th century was the first of its kind. It was a story told through letters.
6. Books became cheap and even the poor could buy them. Circulating libraries made books easily accessible. Publishers also started hiring out novels. Books could now be read in private or could be heard by more people, while one of them read it out.
7. Magazines serialized stories (Charles Dickens’s Pickwick Papers was the first), illustrated them, and sold them cheaply. All these changes increased the number of readers.

Question 3. Write a note on:

1. The Oriya novel
2. Jane Austen’s portrayal of women
3. The picture of the new middle class which the novel Pariksha-Guru portrays.

Answer:

1. In 1877-78, Ramashankar Ray started to serialize the first Oriya novel, “Saudamini”; but it remained incomplete. Orissa’s first major novelist was Fakir Mohon Senapati.
   • He wrote “Chaa Mana Atha Guntha” which deals with land and its possession. This novel illustrated that rural issues could be an important part of urban concerns.
2. The novels of Jane Austen give us a glimpse of the world of women in genteel rural society in mid-19th century Britain.
   • Women, at that time, were encouraged to look for a good marriage and find a wealthy and proper husband. Her famous novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ depicts this well.
   • It writes, ‘It is the truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a good wife’. The main characters are shown to be preoccupied with marriage and money.
3. The novel “Pariksha-Guru” portrays the difficulties of the new middle class in adapting to colonized society while preserving its cultural identity.
   • It emphasizes that Western ideals must be inculcated, but without sacrificing the traditional values of middle-class households.
   • The characters in this Hindi novel by Srinivas Das are seen endeavoring to bridge the two different worlds of modern education and traditional ethics.

Question 4. Discuss some of the social changes in nineteenth-century Britain that Thomas Hardy and Charles Dickens wrote about.

Answer:

Social changes in nineteenth-century Britain highlighted by Thomas Hardy are:

1. The breaking up of rural communities because of industrialization. Due to industrialization, peasants who toiled with their lands were disappearing as large or big farmers enclosed lands, bought machines, and employed laborers to produce for the market.
2. In his novel ‘Mayor of Casterbridge’, Hardy mourns the loss of the more personalized world which is being replaced by a more efficiently managed urban culture.

Social Changes Highlighted by Charles Dickens are:

1. Charles Dickens wrote mainly about the emergence of the industrial its effects on society and the common people.
2. The growth of factories and expanded cities led to the growth of business and economy and increased the profits of capitalists.
3. At the same time, workers faced immense problems. The use of machines resulted in the unemployment of ordinary laborers; they became homeless, creating a problem with housing.
   • The pursuit of profit became the goal of factory owners while the workers were undervalued and almost lost their identity. Human beings were reduced to being mere instruments of production.

Question 5. Summarise the concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about women reading novels. What does this suggest about how women were viewed?

Answer:

The concern in both nineteenth-century Europe and India about women reading novels bore more or less similar fears.

Women were seen as easily corruptible and an imaginary world that the novel provided was seen as a dangerous opening for the imaginations of its readers.

In certain Indian communities, it was felt that women who read novels would leave their domestic environments and aspire to be part of the outside world – the male domain.

This suggests that women were viewed as delicate and incapable of being independent.

They were merely expected to marry a man who could take care of their financial needs while they maintained his household and remained subservient to him.

Question 6. In what ways was the novel in colonial India useful for both the colonizers as well as the nationalists?

Answer:

The novel in colonial India was useful for both the colonizers as well as the (CBSE 2009) nationalists on account of a variety of reasons.

Colonial rulers found “vernacular” novels illuminating the information they provided on native customs and life. The novel was useful in the governance of this diverse country.

Indian nationalists used the form of the novel to criticize colonial rule and instill a sense of national pride and unity among the people.

Question 7. Describe how the issue of caste was included in the novels in India. By referring to any two novels, discuss the ways in which they tried to make readers think about existing social issues.

Answer:

Indians used novels as a powerful medium to criticize what they considered defects in their society and to suggest remedies.

The issue of caste was included in the Indian novels for this same purpose. Novels like Indirabai and Indulekha were written by members of the upper castes with upper-caste characters.

• Potheri Kunjambu, a lower-caste writer from north Kerala, wrote a novel called Saraswativijayam in 1892. It was a direct attack on caste oppression.
  • The novel’s hero, an ‘untouchable’ leaves his village to escape from the cruelty of a Brahmin overlord.
  • He converts to Christianity, receives modern education, and returns to his village as a judge of a local court.
  • In the meantime, the villagers bring the landlord to his court, they believe the landlord’s men have killed the hero.
  • The judge reveals himself and the Nambuthri landlord repents and promises to reform. The novel emphasizes the role of education in uplifting the lower classes.
• In 1920, a Bengali novel Titash Ekti Nadir Naam written by Advaita Malla Burman took up the cause of low castes.
  • The people described are the Mallas – a community of fishermen. The story covers three generations and describes the oppression of the upper castes.
  • The lives of the Mallas are tied to the river Titash. As the river dries, the community dies too.
  • This novel is special because the author himself was a ‘low caste’ describing the anguish of low-caste people.

Question 8. Describe the ways in which the novels in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian belonging.

Answer:

The ways in which the novels in India attempted to create a sense of pan-Indian belonging were:

1. Many historical novels were about Marathas and the Rajputs which produced a sense of a pan-Indian belonging in Bengal.
2. They imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism, romance, and sacrifice. The novels allowed the colonized to give shape to their desires.
3. Bankim’s Anandmath is a novel about a secret Hindu militia that fought Muslims to establish a Hindu kingdom. It was a novel that inspired many freedom fighters.
4. Shivaji, the hero of the novel Anguriya Binimoy (1857) written by Bhudeb Mukhopadhyaya (1825-94) engages in many battles against clever and treacherous Aurangzeb. What gave him courage and grit was his belief that he was a nationalist fighting for the freedom of Hindus.
5. Imagining a heroic past was one way in which the novel helped popularise the sense of belonging to a common nation. It was another way to include various classes in the novel so that they could be seen as belonging to a shared world. Premchand’s novels, for instance, are filled with all kinds of powerful characters drawn from all levels of society.

Chapter 8 Novels, Society And History Short Questions And Answers

Question 1. Novels were useful for both colonial administrators and Indians in colonial India.
Support the statement with an example.

Answer:

To colonial administration:

1. A source to understand native life and customs.
2. Novels helped to govern Indian society with various communities and castes.
3. Those helped me to learn the domestic life, dresses, religious worship, etc.
4. Some of the books were translated into English by British administrators or Christian missionaries.

Read and Learn More Class 10 Social Science Solutions

To Indians:

1. Indians used the novels as a powerful medium to criticize defects that they considered in society and to suggest remedies.
2. To establish a relationship with its past.
3. To propagate their ideas about society.
4. Novels glorified the accounts of the past and helped create a sense of National Pride among the readers.
5. Those helped in creating a sense of collective belongingness on the basis of one’s language.

Question 2. Explain how novels became a popular medium of entertainment among the middle class during the late 19th century.

Answer:

1. The world created by novels was absorbing, believable, and seemingly real.
2. While reading novels, the readers are transported to another person’s world and begin looking at life as it was experienced by the characters of the novel.
3. Novels allowed individuals the pleasure of reading in private as well as in public.
4. The stories of novels were discussed in homes, meetings, or even in offices.

Question 3. What were the advantages of serialized novels?

Answer:

1. A story is published in installments, keeping the suspense for the next issue.
2. Serialization allowed readers to relish the suspense, discuss the characters of a novel, and live for weeks with their stories.
3. This was possible since the magazines were illustrated, cheap, and affordable.

Question 4. What were the advantages of vernacular novels?

Answer:

1. They were written in the language of common people.
2. Vernacular novels produced a sense of a shared world between diverse people of a nation.
3. Novels also draw from different styles of languages. A novel may be written in a classical language combined with the language of the street to make them all a part of the vernacular that it uses,
4. Novels were read individually. Sometimes in groups also.

Question 5. Describe any two popular themes on which women writers in England wrote in the 19th century.

Answer:

Domestic Life: Women writers wrote about domestic life themes with which they (CBSE 2010) were familiar. For this, they drew upon their experience and earned public recognition.

For instance, the novels of Jane Austen depict a society that encouraged women to look for ‘good’ marriages and find wealthy husbands.

Rebellious Women: Women novelists, like Charlotte Bronte, dealt with women who rebelled against existing norms of society before adjusting to them.

In her novel Jane Eyre, Jane is shown as independent and assertive. While girls of her age were supposed to be docile, meek, and well-behaved, Jane was shown protesting against the hypocrisy of her elders.

Question 6. Explain, how novels became a popular medium of entertainment among the middle class during the late 19th century in India.

Answer:

The circulation of printed books allowed people to assure themselves in new ways. (CBSE, Delhi 2010) Picture books, translations from other languages, popular songs sometimes composed in contemporary events, stories in newspapers and magazines–all these offered new forms of entertainment. Within this new culture of print, novels soon became immensely popular.

In Tamil, for example, there was a flood of popular novels in the early decades of the 20th century. Detective and mystery novels often had to be printed again and again to meet the demands of the readers.

In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, written texts were often read aloud for several people to hear.

Individuals sitting at home or traveling in trains enjoyed them.

Question 7. Write three methods by which printed books became more accessible to people.

Answer:

There were a series of innovations in the printing technology in the 19th century.

1. Richard M. Hoe of New York perfected the power-driven cylindrical press. He could print 8,000 sheets per hour. His press was very useful for printing newspapers.
2. The late 19th century saw the development of the offset press capable of printing six colours at a time.
3. Electrically-operated press in the early 20th century increased the rate of printing operations.
4. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, machines were fed, and automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the color register were introduced.

Question 8. How did the novels contribute to the growth of nationalism in Europe?

Answer:

Within the novel, people can see people living in different worlds and sharing a collective identity.

By identifying with their collective identity people felt they belonged to one nation even though they were living in different places.

Question 9. What was the theme of the novel written by Thomas Hardy?

Answer:

The theme of novels written by Thomas Hardy was about the farming communities of England that were breaking up due to the mechanization of agriculture.

Question 10. What were the themes of novels for the young during the 19th century in England?

Answer:

The popular themes were historical adventures of young boys who got involved in some military action and showed courage.

Question 11. What is the importance of Sewasadan by Prem Chand in the History of novels in India?

Answer:

Sewasadan deals with the poor condition of women in the society. It forces the readers to get out of world fantasies and seriously ponder over real-life issues that are confronted by ordinary people.

Question 12. Why did Colonial rulers find Indian novels useful?

Answer:

Indian novels gave colonizers an insight into the lives of the colonized people, their traditions, and their culture.

The Britishers being outsiders knew nothing about the varied customs prevalent in various Indian societies.
This helped them in framing their administrative policies.

Question 13. Novels are useful for the nationalists. Explain. Answer:

The nationalists got an opportunity to glorify the accounts of the past. These novels helped in creating the feeling of Nationalism.

Novels inspired political movements – Anandamath inspired many freedom fighters.

Question 14. Describe the pleasure of reading novels.

Answer:

It offers a popular medium of entertainment. The novels spread the way of silent reading because novels are generally read alone and in silence.

Question 15. Describe the reason for the popularity of novels among women.

Answer:

The reason for the popularity of novels among women was that it allowed for a new conception of womanhood. Stories of love showed women who could choose or refuse their partners and relationships.

Question 16. Write a brief description of Rokeya Hossein and her novels.

Answer:

Rokeya Hossein (1880-1932) was a reformer, who wrote a satiric fantasy in English called ‘Sultana’s Dream’ (1905) which shows a topsy-turvy world in which women take the place of men.

Her novel Padmarag also showed the need for women to reform their condition through their own actions.

Question 17. What was the effect of men’s suspicion about women writing novels or reading them?

Answer:

As men became suspicious of women writing novels or reading them, they started writing in secrecy. Sailabala Ghosh Jaya, a popular novelist, could only write because her husband protected her.

Question 18. What was the attitude of people in India in the 19th century towards women reading? How did women respond to this?

Answer:

There was not a universally favorable attitude.

Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances. Rebel women defied such prohibition.

A Muslim girl in north India defied her family and secretly learned to read and write Urdu. Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox family, learned to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later she published her autobiography in Bengali.

A few Bengali women like Kailash Bashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women. In the 1860s, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai of Maharashtra wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste women.

Women writing in Tamil expressed their gratitude to books. The attitude in general was to keep women imprisoned at home, ignorant, forced to do hard domestic work, and subject to unfair treatment.

In Punjab, folk literature exhorted women to be obedient wives (Ram Chaddha’s Istri Dharm Vichar).

The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with the same message. In Bengal, – an entire area in Central Calcutta- the Battala – was devoted to printing popular books. They were cheap editions of religious texts, scriptures as well as scandalous literature.

Women’s education was not encouraged by the majority as Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein reported in her address to Bengal Women’s Educated Conference.

Question 19. Which form did the epistolary novel use to tell its story? Explain with an example.

Answer:

The epistolary novel uses the private and personal form of letters to tell its story.

For example, Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, written in the eighteenth century, told much of its story through an exchange of letters between two lovers. These letters tell the reader of the. Eden conflicts in the heroine’s mind.

Question 20. Briefly describe the two earliest novels in Marathi.

Answer:

Yamuna Paryatan and Muktamala were the two earliest novels in Marathi.

1. Yamuna Paryatan (1857). This was the first novel in Marathi. Its author was Baba Padmanji. It used a simple style of storytelling to speak about the plight of widows.
2. Muktamala (1861). Lakshman Moreshwar Halbe’s Muktamala was the second Marathi novel. This was not a realistic novel; it presented an imaginary ‘romance’ narrative with a moral purpose.

Question 21. In which two worlds did the early Bengali novels live in the 19th century?

Answer:

In the 19th century, the early Bengali novels lived in the following two worlds:

1. Many of the novels were located in the past, their characters, events and love stories based on historical events.
2. Another group of novels depicted the inner world of domestic life in contemporary settings. Domestic novels frequently deal with the social problems and romantic relationships between men and women.

Question 22. What do you know about the languages of the novel?

Answer:

The novel uses the vernacular, the language that is spoken by common people. By coming close to the different spoken languages of the people, the novel produces the sense of a shared world between diverse people in a nation.

The novel also draws from different styles of language. A novel may take a classical language and combine it with the language of the streets and make them all a part of the vernacular that it uses. Like the nation, the novel brings together many cultures.

Question 23. What do you know about the development of the novel in Assam?

Answer:

1. The first novels in Assam were written by the missionaries. Two of them were translations of Bengali including Phulmoni and Karuna.
2. In 1888, Assamese students in Kolkata formed the Asamya Bhasar Unnatisadhan which brought out a journal called Jonaki. This journal opened up opportunities for authors to develop the novel.
3. Rajanikanta Bardoloi wrote the first major historical novel in Assam called Manomati (1900).
   • It is set in the Burmese invasion, stories of which the author had probably heard from old soldiers who had fought in the 1819 campaign.
   • It is a tale of two lovers belonging to two hostile families who are separated by the war and finally reunited.

Question 24. What message does Gulavadi Venkata Rao’s novel convey?

Answer:

In Gulavadi Venkata Rao’s novel Indirabai, the heroine is given away in marriage at a very young age to an elderly man. Her husband dies soon after, and she is forced to lead the life of a widow.

Despite opposition from her family and society, Indirabai succeeds in continuing her education. Eventually, she marries again, this time a progressive, English-educated man.

Women’s education, the plight of widows, and problems created by the early marriage of girls were important issues for social reformers in Karnataka at that time.

Chapter 8 Novels Society And History Multiple Choice Question And Answers

Question 1. Oliver Twist was written by

1. Emile Zola
2. Thomas Hardy
3. Jane Austen
4. Charles Dickens

Answer: 4. Charles Dickens

Question 2. Jane Austen’s famous novel was

1. Hard Times
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Jane Eyre
4. Jungle Book

Answer: 2. Pride and Prejudice

Question 3. Which of the following novels was not written by Charles Dickens?

1. Hard Times
2. Germinal
3. Oliver Twist
4. Pickwick Papers

Answer: 2. Germinal

Question 4. Who wrote the ‘Jungle Book’?

1. Charlotte Bronte
2. R. L. Stevenson
3. Rudyard Kipling
4. None of these

Answer: 3. Rudyard Kipling

Question 5. The earliest Indian novel was written in which of the following languages?

1. Tamil
2. Hindi
3. Bengali
4. Telugu

Answer: 3. Bengali

Question 6. The first modern novel in Malayalam is

1. Swarna Lekha
2. Indu Lekha
3. Sindu Lekha
4. None of these

Answer: 2. Indu Lekha

Question 7. Who is the pioneer of modern Hindi literature?

1. Bharatendu Harishchandra
2. Srinivas Das
3. Devaki Nandan Khatri
4. Munshi Premchand

Answer: 1. Bharatendu Harishchandra

Question 8. The first modern Hindi novel is:

1. Parikhsha-Guru
2. Godan
3. Chandrakanta
4. Sevasadan

Answer: 1. Parikhsha-Guru

Question 9. Which was the first novel written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee?

1. Anandmath
2. Sultana’s Dream
3. Muktamala
4. Durgeshnandini

Answer: 4. Durgeshnandini

Question 10. Which one of the following novels is written by Rokeya Hussein?

1. Pariksha Guru
2. Godan
3. Anandmath
4. Sultana’s Dream

Answer: 4. Sultana’s Dream

Question 11. Which of the following novels deals with caste oppression?

1. Sultana’s Dream
2. Indu Lekha
3. Saraswativijayam
4. Godan

Answer: 3. Saraswativijayam

Question 12. Which was the first historical novel written in Bengali?

1. Anandamath
2. Anguriya Binimoy
3. Sultana’s Dream
4. Durgesh Nandini

Answer: 2. Anguriya Binimoy

Question 13. Who was the central character of Prem Chand’s Rangbhoomi?

1. Tulsidas
2. Surdas
3. Kabirdas
4. None of these

Answer: 2. Surdas

Question 14. Which of the following novels was not written by Munshi Premchand?

1. Rangbhoomi
2. Godan
3. Sewasadan
4. Pariksha-Guru

Answer: 4. Pariksha-Guru

Question 15. Name the novel which was based on the effect of industrialization.

1. Hard Times
2. Oliver Twist
3. Germinal
4. Pickwick Papers

Answer: 1. Hard Times

Question 16. What is an ‘epistolary novel’?

1. A novel written in a series of letters.
2. A novel based on a biographical account
3. A novel written in poetic verse
4. None of these.

Answer: 1. A novel written in a series of letters.

1. Passage Based Questions And Answers

1. Identify famous characters from novels (mentioned in your textbook), after reading the following clues. Write the name of the character, the name of the novel, and the name of the authorities.

1. He is a blind ‘untouchable’ beggar who struggled against the forcible takeover of his land and set up a tobacco factory.
2. She was an intelligent and educated upper-caste woman who challenged the existing practices and married an educated man outside her caste.
3. He was shipwrecked on an Island, rescued a native, and named him ‘Friday’, without conduction even bothering to ask him a name.
4. She was an independent and assertive young girl who challenged the hypocrisy of elders.

Answer:

1. The name of the character is Surdas.
   • The name of the Novel is Rangbhoomi.
   • The author of the novel-Prem Chand.
2. The name of the character is Indulekha.
   • The name of the novel is also Indulekha.
   • The name of the author is Menon. (the main character of Madhuban).
3. The name of the character is Robinson Crusoe.
   • The name of the novel is Mayor of Casterbridge (1886). The author’s name is Daniel Defoe.
4. The name of the character’. The name of the novel is Jane Eyre. The Author’s name is Charlotte Bronte’s.

2. Matching of Columns

Match the books given in Column A with the name of the author

Answer: 1.-(c) 2.-(d) 3.-(e) 4.-(a) 5.-(b).

3. Puzzle Solving Questions And Answers

Solve the crossword puzzle with the help of the given below clues.

Across:

2. A book written in the form of a series of letters.

5. Traditional art of storytelling.

6. A format in which the story is published in installments, each part in a new issue.

8. Language spoken by common people.

Down:

1. Writer of a novel.

3. A form of writing that criticizes society in a witty and clever way.

4. Indulekha married a groom belonging to this caste in Kerala.

7. Prose tales of adventure and heroism.

Answer:

1. JANE EYRE
2. EPISTOLARY
3. SATIRE
4. NAYAR
5. KISSA-GOI
6. SERIALISED
7. DASTAN
8. VERNACULAR

Chapter 7 Print Culture And The Modern World Important Dateline

• 768-770 CE: Hand Print technology comes to Japan.
• 868 CE: The first Japanese book ‘Diamond Sutra’ was published.
• 1430s: Gutenberg developed the first well-known printing press.
• 1753: Kitagawa Utamaro born in Edo.
• 1508: Erasmus wrote Adages.
• 1517: Martin Luther wrote 95 theses.
• 1812: The Grimm Brothers in Germany compiled folk tales.
• Mid-16th century: Print comes to India. The first Printing Press was set up in Kolkata.
• 1822: Persian Newspaper Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar published.
• 1867: Deoband Seminary was founded.
• 1870s: Caricature and cartoons began to publish
• 1871: Gulamgiri a famous novel published.
• 1878: The Vernacular Press Act was passed.
• 1920s: Chap Books series published in England.

Chapter 7 Print Culture And The Modern World Important Concepts And Terms

Calligraphy: The art of beautiful and stylized writing.

Vellum: A parchment made from the skin of animals.

Platen: In letterpress printing, platen is a board that is pressed onto the back of the paper to get the impression from the type. At one time it used to be a wooden board; later it was made of steel.

Compositor: The person who composes the text for printing.

Gallery: Metal frame in which types are laid and the text composed.

Ulema: Legal scholar of Islam and the Sharia (a body of Islamic Law).

Ballad: A historical account or folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited.

Fatwa: A legal pronouncement on Islamic law usually given by a mufti (legal scholar) to clarify issues on which the law is uncertain.

Taverns: Places where people gather to drink alcohol, serve food, meet friends, and exchange news.

Protestant Reformation: A sixteenth-century movement to reform the Catholic Church dominated by Rome. Martin Luther was one of the main protestant reformers. Several traditions of anti-catholic Christianity developed out of the movement.

Seditious: Action, speech, or writing that is seen as opposing the government.

Inquisition: A former Roman Catholic court for identifying and punishing heretics.

Heretical: Beliefs that do not follow the accepted teachings of the Church. In Medieval times, heresy was seen as a threat to the right of the church to decide on what should be believed and what should not. Heretical beliefs were severely punished.

Satiety: The state of being fulfilled much beyond the point of satisfaction. Dominations: Subgroups within a religion.

Almanac: An annual publication giving astronomical data, information about movements of the sun and moon, timing of full tides and eclipses, and much else that was of importance in the everyday life of people.

Chapbook: A term used to describe pocket-size books that are sold by traveling pedlars called Chapman. These became popular from the time of the sixteenth-century print and revolution.

Despotism: A system of government in which absolute power is exercised in an individual, unregulated by legal and constitutional checks.

Novel: A novel is a modern form of literature. It is born from print, a mechanical invention.

Chapter 7 Print Culture And The Modern World Ncert Textbook Exercises

Question 1. Give reasons for the following:

1. Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.
2. Martin Luther was in favor of print and spoke out in praise of it.
3. The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited books in the mid-sixteenth century.
4. Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association.

Answer:

1. Woodblock print was invented around the sixth century in China. It came to Europe, along with Marco Polo, in 1295. Marco Polo returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China and brought the knowledge of woodblock print with him on his return.
2. Through the publications of his protestant ideas, Martin Luther challenged the orthodox practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. He wrote 95 theses criticizing many of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This led to a division within the church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. He also translated the New Testament of which 5000 copies were sold within a few days. These could be impossible without the printing technology. Deeply grateful to the print, Luther said, “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.” This is the reason why Luther was in favor of print and spoke out in praise of it.
3. The Roman Catholic Church had to face many dissents from the mid-16th century onwards. People wrote many books that interpreted God and the creation in their own ways or as they liked. Therefore, the church banned such books and kept a record of such banned books. It was called the Index of Prohibited Books.
4. Gandhi considered that the liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association were the three most powerful vehicles for expressing and cultivating public opinion. Therefore, he said the fight for Swaraj was a fight for liberty of speech, press, and freedom of association.

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

1. The Gutenberg Press
2. Erasmus’ idea of printed book
3. The Vernacular Press Act

Answer:

1. The Gutenberg Press:
   • The first printing press was developed by Johan Gutenberg in the 1430s.
   • It was a developed form of the olive and wine presses. By 1448 Gutenberg perfected this system. The lead molds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet.
   • The first book he printed was the Bible.
   • He produced 180 copies of the Bible in 3 years, which was much faster by standards of the time, at the time.
2. Erasmus’s Idea of Printed Book: Erasmus was a Latin scholar and a Catholic reformer. He criticized the printing of books. He thought that most of the books were stupid, ignorant, scandalous, raving, irreligious, and seditious. According to him, such books devaluate valuable books.
3. The Vernacular Press Act: Modelled on the Irish Press Laws, it was passed in 1878. This law gave the government tyrannical rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. If a seditious report was published and the newspaper did not heed an initial warning, the press was seized and the printing machinery confiscated. This was a complete violation of the freedom of expression.

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

1. Women
2. The poor
3. Reformers

Answer:

1. Women: The spread of print culture in 19th century India benefited Indian women through learning and education.
   • The liberal families supported the education of women to study or read as they believed education and reading would make women perfect. There was also a negative side to the introduction of books where women were concerned.
   • Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed. Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.
   • This led to the counter-reaction, as most of the oppressed women began to study and read books and learn writing in secrecy. Some literate women started to write books and their autobiographies.
   • Rashsundari Devi, a young married girl wrote her autobiography “Amar Jiban” which was published in 1876. Overall, the print culture in 19th century India helped in the spread of the feeling of self-reliance among Indian women.
2. The Poor: The poor people benefited from the spread of print culture because of the availability of books at a low price. The readership among them increased due to the publication of low-priced books.
   • Public libraries were also set up in the early 19th century, expanding access to books where all people could gain knowledge.
   • Encouraged and inspired by the social reformers, people like factory workers too set up their libraries and some even wrote books. Kashibaba, a Kanpur mill worker wrote and published ‘Chote aur Bade Ka Sawal’.
3. Reformers: Indian reformers of the 19th century utilized print culture as the most potent means of spreading their reformist ideas and highlighting unethical issues.
   • They began publishing various vernacular, English, and Hindi newspapers, and books through which they could spread their opinions against widow immolation, child marriage, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood, and idolatry to the common people of the country.
   • In this way, the spread of print culture in the 19th century provided them a space for attacking religious orthodoxy and spreading modern social and political ideas to people of different languages across the country.

Question 4. Why did some people in eighteenth-century Europe think that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism?

Answer:

Many people in eighteenth-century Europe thought that the print culture had the power in to bring enlightenment and end despotism.

This would help in spreading literacy and knowledge among all classes of people.

Social reformers like Louise, Sebastian Mercier, and Martin Luther felt that the print culture was the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion and hence, it would definitely bring enlightenment and an end to despotism.

Question 5. Why did some people fear the effect of easily available printed books? Choose one example from Europe and one from India.

Answer:

Some people especially from the upper class and the powerful class feared the effect of easily available printed books.

Their cause of fear was that due to the spread of literacy among the common people they could lose their position or authority.

Some people feared that this could lead to the spread of rebellions and irreligious thoughts. For example:

• In Europe, the Roman Catholic Church tried to curb printed books through the Index of Prohibited Books.
• In India, the Vernacular Press Act imposed restrictions on the Indian press and various local newspapers. Also, some religious leaders and some people from the upper castes expressed their fear.

Question 6. What were the effects of the spread of print culture on poor people in nineteenth-century India?

Answer:

The effects of the spread of print culture on poor people in nineteenth-century India were:

1. The poor people benefited from the spread of print culture in India on account of the availability of low-price books and public libraries.
2. Enlightening essays were written against caste discrimination and its inherent injustices. These were read by the people across the country.
3. With the encouragement and support of social reformers, overworked factory workers set up libraries for self-education, and some of them even published their own work, for example, Kashibaba published his “Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal”.

Question 7. Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.

Answer:

The print culture immensely helped in the growth of nationalism in India in the following ways:

1. Through the vernacular press, oppressive methods of colonial rule were reported.
2. The misrule of the government and its initiative to curb the freedom of the press spread the nationalist ideas that demanded freedom of the press.
3. Nationalist feelings and revolutionary ideas were secretly spread by the dailies such as The Amrit Bazar Patrika, The Indian Mirror, Kesri, The Hindu, Bombay Samachar, etc. Through these newspapers, national leaders always tried to mobilize public opinion of the Indian masses and unite them for the cause of nationalism.
4. The print culture helped in educating the people who then started to be gradually influenced by the reformist and nationalist ideas of the various Indian leaders like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Subhash Chandra Bose, M.K. Gandhi, etc.

Chapter 7 Print Culture And The Modern World Short Questions And Answers

Question 1. Who were the people who employed scribes to write in the 14th century?

Answer:

As handwritten books were expensive, only the rich, the aristocrats, and the Church could employ scribes. The scribes wrote only for aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries.

With the coming of woodblock printing, merchants and traders started buying books in large numbers, with the result that booksellers could afford to hire scribes.

One bookseller could employ 50 scribes due to the new technology in printing. It was no longer the monopoly of the rich and the influential.

Read and Learn More Class 10 Social Science Solutions

Question 2. State the limitations of handwritten books.
Or
Why were manuscripts not used widely in everyday life before the age of print in India?

Answer:

Handwritten books were expensive and took a long time to produce. Copying was expensive, and it was a hard and laborious work.

The manuscripts were very fragile and could easily be spoilt. They were awkward in size and difficult to carry. The result was that their circulation was limited. Middle-class people could not afford them.

Question 3. Write a short note on the developments or innovations in printing technology in the 19th century.
Or
State three methods by which printed books became more accessible to people.

Answer:

1. There was a series of innovations in the printing technology in the 19th century.
2. Richard M. Hoe of New York perfected the power-driven cylindrical press. He could print 8,000 sheets per hour. His press was very useful for printing newspapers.
3. The late 19th century saw the development of the offset press capable of printing six colours at a time.
4. Electrically-operated press in the early 20th century increased the rate of printing operations.
5. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, machines were fed automatic paper reels, and photoelectric controls of the color register were introduced.

Question 4. Explain any three features of manuscripts before the age of print in India.

Answer:

1. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or handmade papers.
2. The pages were beautifully illustrated.
3. They were pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.
4. They were available in vernacular languages. They were highly expensive and fragile.
5. They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.
6. They were not widely used in everyday life.

Question 5. Why did the woodblock method become popular in Europe?

Answer:

1. Production of handwritten manuscripts could not meet the ever-increasing demand for books.
2. Copying was an expensive, laborious, and time-consuming business.
3. The manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried
   around or read easily.
4. By the early 15th century, woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards, and religious pictures with simple, brief texts.

Question 6. What was the role of new visual image culture in printing in India?

Answer:

1. At the end of the 19th century, a new visual culture started.
2. With the increasing number of printing presses visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.
3. Painters like Raja Ravi Verma produced images for mass circulation.
4. Cheap prints and calendars were brought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their houses.

Question 7. Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. Explain.

Answer:

1. Collectively the writings of thinkers provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition, and despotism.
2. Scholars and thinkers argued for the rule of reason rather than custom and demanded that everything should be judged through the application of reason and rationality.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Question 8. Why was China a major producer of printed material for a long time?

Answer:

China had a huge bureaucratic system. The personnel for this system was chosen based on a Civil Service Examination.

To help the candidates, textbooks for this examination were printed in enormous numbers. In the 16th century, when more candidates were recruited, more printed material appeared in public.

Question 9. Write briefly why some people feared that the development of print could lead to the growth of dissenting ideas.

Answer:

With the coming of printing technology, there was a greater possibility for wide circulation of ideas. A new world of debate and discussion would be created.

Those who did not agree with the established norms were now able to publish and circulate their ideas.

Through print media, they persuaded people to think differently and developed the spirit of inquiry. The growth in popularity of the Reformist ideas in Europe is an example of this trend.

Question 10. Write a short note on how the printing press came to India.

Answer:

The printing press was brought to India by the Jesuit missionaries. They came to Goa in the 19th century, learned Konkani, and printed many tracts.

But in 1674, about 50 books were printed in Konkani and Kanarese languages. The Catholic priests published the first book in Tamil in 1579, in Cochin and in 1713 the first book in Malayalam was printed by them.

The Dutch Protestant missionaries had already printed 72 Tamil books by 1710, most of them were translations of earlier texts. By the end of the 18th century, newspapers began to appear in various Indian languages.

Question 11. What were the difficulties faced by the manuscripts in India?

Answer:

The handwritten books were very expensive and very fragile. They were difficult to carry and had to be handled carefully.

They were also not easy to read as the script was written in many styles. Because of this difficulty, they were not widely read. Teachers dictated them from memory and the students wrote them down.

Students learned not to read the manuscripts but only write them. Though in the pre-colonial period, Bengal had many village primary schools, the manuscripts were not used in everyday life.

Thus, students became literate without ever actually reading the texts.

Question 12. “The print culture created the conditions within which the French Revolution occurred.” Support the statement by giving three arguments.
Or
Why do some historians think that the print culture created the basis for the French Revolution?

Answer:

1. Print popularised the ideas of enlightened thinkers, and the writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read widely.
   • They made a critical commentary on tradition, superstition, and despotism. It opened the eyes of the readers and made them question, be critical, and rational.
2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All values, norms, and institutions were revalued and discussed by a public that had become aware of the power of reason. New ideas of social revolution came into being.
3. By the 1780s, there was an outpouring of literature, that mocked royalty and criticized their morality. In the process, it raised questions about the existing social order.
   • It led to hostile sentiments against the monarchy. Thus, the print culture created the conditions in which the French Revolution occurred.

Question 13. Who were the supporters of women’s education in India and why?

Answer:

The print culture affected the lives of women. Not only women readers but also many women writers came forward to write about women’s experiences.

They were supported by liberal fathers and husbands who started educating their womenfolk at home. Some even sent them to schools.

Many schools for women were set up by social workers and rich people in towns and cities. Many reformers also supported education among women.

Question 14. What was the role of cartoons and caricatures in new forms of publications?

Answer:

By the 1870s, cartoons and caricatures appeared in many journals and newspapers. They commented on social and political issues.

By making fun of certain beliefs, they aroused the public and made them think about certain rules of society and the role of imperial rulers.

Some caricatures made fun of the educated Indians’ fascination for everything Western in tastes, clothes, etc. Some, on the other hand, expressed fear of change of any kind.

In the field of politics, they lampooned the behavior and attitude of imperial rulers. The imperial rulers returned the compliment by making fun of and caricaturing the nationalists.

Question 15. Explain how print culture had assisted the growth of nationalism in India in the 19th century.

Answer:

1. Print culture led to the publication of most papers in Vernacular languages. Many more journals were published after 1870.
2. These journals and newspapers published cartoons and caricatures criticizing imperial rule and commenting on social and political issues.
   • The vernacular newspapers like Tilak’s Kesari and Maratha became assertively nationalist and reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalism.
3. The repressive measures passed by the British government provoked militant protest. Tilak was imprisoned for writing about them in his Kesari, in 1908.
   • It led to widespread protests. Print helped the leaders to carry their ideas to people across India, brought them closer, and helped the growth of nationalism.

Question 16. How did print culture affect women in nineteenth-century India? Explain.

Answer:

Women became important as readers as well as writers. The lives and feelings of women began to be written in vivid and intense ways. The number of women readers increased enormously in middle-class homes.

Liberal fathers and husbands began educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to schools when schools for women were set up in cities and towns.

Many journals carried a syllabus and attached suitable reading matter which could be used at home.

From the 1860s, a few Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experience of women who were imprisoned, kept in ignorance forced to do hard domestic work, and treated unjustly.

Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai of Maharashtra in 1880, wrote with anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women – especially widows.

In Central Calcutta, an entire area called Battala was devoted to printing popular books, profusely illustrated. They were carried by pedlars to homes enabling women to read them in their leisure time.

But everyone was not so liberal. Hindus (conservative) believed that a literate girl would become a widow.

Muslims believed that an educated woman would be corrupted by reading. Some women had to learn to read and write in secret, like Rashsundari Debi of East Bengal.

She learned to read secretly in her kitchen and later wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban in 1876.

Question 17. Explain the main features of the first printed Bible.

Answer:

The main features of the first printed Bible were:

• About 180 copies of the Bible were printed and it took three years to produce them.
• 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.
• No two copies were the same. Every page of each copy was different. This made everyone possess a copy that they could claim was unique.
• Colour was used within the letters in various places. This had two functions, i.e., it added color to the page and highlighted all the holy words to emphasize their significance. Color on every page was added by hand.
• Gutenberg printed the text in black leaving spaces where the color could be filled later.

Question 18. Examine the role of missionaries in the growth of the press in India.

Answer:

The printing press first came to India with Portuguese missionaries to Goa in the mid-sixteenth century. Jesuit priests learned Konkani and printed several tracts.

By 1674, about 50 books were printed in Konkani and Kanara languages. Catholic priests published the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin and in 1713, the first Malayalam book was published by them.

By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries published 32 Tamil Texts, many of them translations of older works.

Question 19. What role was played by the print culture in bringing the French Revolution?

Answer:

Role of print culture in bringing French Revolution:

1. Print popularised the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers. Collectively, their writing provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition, and disposition. They argued for the rule of reason rather than custom.
2. They attacked the sacred authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state. This eroded the authority of a social order based on tradition.
   • The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau made readers see the world through new eyes, eyes that questioned and were rational and critical.
3. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. Now all values, norms, and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by the public, now aware of their power to question existing beliefs and ideas. It led to new ideas of social revolution.
4. By the 1780s there was an output of literature that mocked royalty and questioned their morality. Cartoons and caricatures presented a monarchy interested only in their own pleasures, while the ordinary people suffered immense hardships.
5. Literature spread hostile sentiments against the monarchy, though it was circulated underground. But we must remember that to combat the above ideas was the influence of the Church.
   • If people read Voltaire and Rousseau, they were also exposed to monarchical and Church propaganda. So print did not directly shape their minds, but it made it possible for people to think differently.

Question 20. How did the printing press bring forth changes in reading culture?

Answer:

With the printing press, a new reading public emerged.

1. Printing reduced the cost of books.
2. The time and labor to produce each book came down. Multiple copies could be produced easily.
3. Books flooded the market, reaching out to an evergrowing readership.
4. It created a new culture of reading.
5. Common people could not read books earlier, only the elite could. Common people heard a story or saw a performance collectively.
6. Instead of a hearing public now there was a reading public.
7. The rate of literacy in European countries was also low till the 20th century. Publishers reached out to people by making them listen to books being read out.
8. Printers published popular ballads and folktales, profusely illustrated. These were then sung and recited at village gatherings in taverns in towns.
9. Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. Hearing and reading the public, thus became one.

Question 21. Why were the printed books popular even among the illiterate people?

Answer:

1. First, very cheap small books brought to markets in 19th-century towns allowed poor people traveling, to buy them. Public libraries set up in the early 20th century expanded the access to books.
2. From the late 19th century, many social reformers like Jyotiba Phule (a Maratha reform pioneer) wrote about injustices of the caste system in their books (Gulamgiri, 1871).
   • In the 20th century, B.R. Ambedkar and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker wrote powerfully on caste, and their books were read by people all over India.
   • Print Culture and the Modern World Workers in factories were too overworked and lacked education to write much about their experiences.
   • A Kanpur mill worker wrote and published “Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal” in 1938.
   • To show links between caste and class exploitation under the name of Sudarshan Chakhar between 1935 and 1955 were together published and were called “Sacchi Kavitayen”.
   • Libraries were set up in Bangalore Cotton Mills and in Bombay. It was done to bring literacy and to propagate the message of nationalism. The printed books made the poor crazy about reading.

Question 22. Describe the progress of Printing in Japan.

Answer:

Buddhist Missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around C.E. 768-770.

The oldest Japanese book, printed in C.E. 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards, and paper money.

In medieval Japan, poems and prose writings were regularly published, and books were cheap and in plenty.

In the late 18th century, flourishing urban circles in Edo (modern Tokyo) published illustrated collections by printing artists.

Courts and bookstores were packed with hand-printed material of various types books on women, musical instruments, calculations, tea ceremonies, flower arrangements, proper etiquette, cooking, and famous places.

Famous examples: Kitagawa Utamoro’s contribution to an art form called Ukiyo (pictures of the floating world).

Question 23. What is a manuscript? Write four shortcomings of manuscripts.

Answer:

A manuscript is a handwritten book. It was written on a palm leaf or on a handmade paper. Pages were sometimes beautifully illustrated.

They would be either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.

The four shortcomings of manuscripts were:

1. They were highly expensive and fragile.
2. They had to be handled carefully.
3. They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.
4. So they were not widely used. Students very often did not read the texts. They only learned to write.
   • Teachers dictated portions from memory and students wrote them down. Many became literate without ever actually reading any kind of text.

Question 24. What was the attitude of people in India in the nineteenth century towards women reading? How did women respond to this?

Answer:

There was not a universally favorable attitude. Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.

Rebel women defied such prohibition. A Muslim girl in north India defied her family and secretly learned to read and write Urdu.

Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox family, learned to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later she published her autobiography in Bengali.

A few Bengali women like Kailash Bashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences of women. In the 1860s, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai of Maharashtra wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste women.

Women writing in Tamil expressed their gratitude to books. The attitude in general was to keep women imprisoned at home, ignorant, forced to do hard domestic work, and subject to unfair treatment.

In Punjab, folk literature exhorted women to be obedient wives (Ram Chaddha’s Istri Dharm Vichar.) The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with the same message.

In Bengal, – an entire area in Central Calcutta the Battala was devoted to printing popular books. They were cheap editions of religious texts, scriptures as well as scandalous literature.

Women’s education was not encouraged by the majority as Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain reported in her address to Bengal Women’s Educated Conference.

Question 25. Explain the role played by print in bringing about a division in the Roman Catholic Church.

Answer:

In 1517, a religious reformer, Martin Luther, wrote 95 theses criticizing many 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 reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Luther’s translation of the Bible sold 5,000 copies in the first week and soon the second edition began.

The print of his theses, according to scholars, brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and spread rapidly the ideas of Reformation.

Question 26. State three ways in which early printed books closely resembled manuscripts.

Answer:

1. The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles.
2. Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns.
3. Illustrations were printed. In the books meant for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank on the printed page. Each purchaser could choose the design and decide on the painting school that would do the illustrations.

Question 27. How did print help connect communities and people in different parts of India? Explain with examples.

Answer:

Print connected communities and people in different parts of India through newspapers, by encouraging public debates on important issues.

New ideas emerged in Sambad Kaumudi published by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in 1821, which provoked debate on widow immolation, Brahmanical priesthood, idolatry, etc., by printing ideas in every language spoken by ordinary people.

In retaliation, Hindu orthodoxy started Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions. In north India, ulemas feared colonial rulers would change Muslim personal laws, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts.

The Deoband Seminary published thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives and explaining Islamic doctrines.

Hindus also published religious texts in Vernacular languages. Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out in Calcutta in 1810.

Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in Vernacular languages.

The religious texts reached a very wide circle of people encouraging discussions, debates, and controversies within and among different religions.

Newspapers conveyed news from one place to another, creating pan-Indian identities. Thus, print not only stimulated the publication of conflicting opinions but also connected communities and people in different parts of India.

Question 28. Why did the new technology not entirely displace the existing art of producing books by hand?

Answer:

1. The printed books closely resembled the written manuscripts in appearance and layout.
2. The metal letters imitated the ornamental hand styles.
3. Borders in printed books were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns and illustrations were painted.
4. In the books for the rich, space for decoration was kept blank on the printed page. After each purchaser had chosen the design, the painting school would do the illustrations.

So, new technology did not entirely displace the existing art of producing books by hand.

Question 29. By the end of the 19th century, a new visual culture was taking shape. Explain.

Answer:

The setting up of an increasing number of printing presses made it easy to reproduce visual images in multiple copies. Painters like Raja Ram Varma produced images for mass circulation.

Cheap prints and calendars could be bought by the poor to decorate the walls of their homes or places of work.

The prints began shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics, society and culture. In the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were published in journals and newspapers.

Imperial cartoons lampooned nationalists and nationalist cartoons criticized the imperial rule.

Question 30. How did ideas about science, reason, and rationality find their way into popular literature in 18th-century Europe?

Answer:

In the 18th century the periodical press combined information about current affairs with entertainment. Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade as well as news of developments in other places.

Similarly, the ideas of philosophers now became accessible to common people. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed.

When scientists like Sir Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could influence a much wider circle of scientifically minded readers.

The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Rousseau were also widely printed and read. Thus their ideas of science, reason, and rationality found their way into popular literature.

Question 31. How did the uses of printing diversify in China by the 17th century? Explain.

Answer:

By the 17th century, urban culture bloomed in China, and the use of printing diversified.

1. Printing was no longer used just by scholars and officials.
2. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information.
3. Reading increasingly become a leisure activity. New readers preferred narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays.
4. Rich women began to read, many women began publishing their poems and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their work and courtesans wrote about their lives.

Question 32. Write the name of any two women writers of India in the 19th century and highlight the contribution of anyone who wrote about the different experiences of the women.

Answer:

The two women writers of India in the 19th century were:

1. Kailash Bashini Debi
2. Tarabai Shinde

Kailash Bashini Debi was a Bengali writer who wrote books, highlighting the experiences of women. She wrote about how women were imprisoned at home, kept in ignorance, forced to do hard domestic work, and treated unjustly.

Question 33. How did printing come to Europe from China? Explain.

Answer:

In 1295, Marco Polo a great explorer returned to Italy after years of exploration in China. Marco Polo brought the knowledge of woodblock printing from China and soon Italians began producing books with woodblocks.

The technology spread rapidly to the rest of Europe. Merchants and students in the university started buying cheaper printed copies.

Question 34. Discuss the growth of printing presses in Europe from the 15th to the 16th century.

Answer:

In 100 years (1450-1550), the print culture had spread from Germany to all over Europe. Printers from Germany traveled all over Europe looking for jobs.

They set up presses in most European countries. By 1470, Rome, France, and Holland had printing presses. In the second half of the 15th century, 20 million books were printed.

By the end of the 16th century, there were 200 million printed copies flooding Europe.

Chapter 7 Print Culture And The Modern World Multiple Choice Questions And Answers

Question 1. Printing was first developed in

1. Japan
2. Portugal
3. China
4. Germany

Answer: 3. China

Question 2. Which one among the following is an ancient name of Tokyo?

1. Osaka
2. Nagano
3. Edo
4. Gifu

Answer: 3. Edo

1. Question 3. The first printed book by the mechanical press was ___________.
   Or
   Which of the following was the first book printed by Gutenberg?The New Testament
2. The Bible
3. Chap Books
4. Diamond Sutra

Answer: 2. The Bible

Question 4. Who brought printing to Europe?

1. Martin Luther
2. Gutenberg
3. Marco Polo
4. Erasmus

Answer: 3. Marco Polo

Question 5. “Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one”. Who spoke these words?

1. Johann Gutenberg
2. Newcomen
3. Mahatma Gandhi
4. Martin Luther

Answer: 4. Martin Luther

Question 6. Who developed the first printing press in the 1430s?

1. Marco Polo
2. Johann Gutenberg
3. James Watt
4. None of the above

Answer: 2. Johann Gutenberg

Question 7. The British imposed the Vernacular Press Act

1. To curb internal revolts
2. To curtail rising discontentment among Indians
3. To promote Indian allegiance to the British
4. To confiscate the property of the Indian Press

Answer: 2. To curtail rising discontentment among Indians

Question 8. Choose the name of the oldest printed book in Japan.

1. Diamond Sutra
2. The Bible
3. Ukiyo
4. The Koran

Answer: 1. Diamond Sutra

Question 9. Which of the following books reflects the plight of the ‘lower castes’ and the poor in India?

1. Gulamagiri
2. Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal
3. Sachchi Kavitayan
4. All of the above

Answer: 4. All of the above

Question 10. In India, the printing press first came to

1. Goa with Portuguese
2. Bombay with British
3. Goa with British
4. Bombay with Portuguese

Answer: 1. Goa with Portuguese

Question 11. Who among the following was scared of print?

1. Writers and philosophers
2. Religious authorities and monarchs.
3. Common people – including peasants, workers, poor women, etc.
4. Printers and Publishers

Answer: 2. Religious authorities and monarchs.

Question 12. Which one among the following is an autobiography of Rashsundari Devi?

1. Amar Jiban
2. Amar Jyoti
3. Amar Jawan
4. Amar Zindagi

Answer: 1. Amar Jiban

Question 13. Who among the following introduced hand-printing technology in Japan?

1. Buddhist Missionaries from India
2. Buddhist Missionaries from Japan
3. Buddhist Missionaries from China
4. None of the above

Answer: 3. Buddhist Missionaries from China

Question 14. The first weekly paper published in India was:

1. Bombay Samachar
2. Bengal Gazette
3. Shamsul Akbar
4. Samachar Chandrika

Answer: 2. Bengal Gazette

Question 15. The newspaper started by Bal Gangadhar Tilak was:

1. The Kesari
2. The Hindu
3. The Statesman
4. The Tribune

Answer: 1. The Kesari

1. Passage Based Questions And Answers

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

Thomas Wood, a Yorkshire mechanic, narrated how he would rent old newspapers and read them by firelight in the evenings as he could not afford candles. Autobiographies of poor people narrated their struggle to read against grim obstacles.

Read the excerpt given above and answer the following questions:

1. Who was Thomas Wood?
2. What does this passage depict?
3. What were the major obstacles poor people faced in reading newspapers?

Answer:

1. Thomas Wood was a mechanic. He lived in Yorkshire.
2. This passage depicts the desire of poor people to read Newspapers. By reading newspapers, they wanted to overcome different obstacles.
3. The major obstacle, they faced was that they could not buy newspapers. They often rented old newspapers to read.

2. Oral Quiz

1. Skilled Handwriters were called
2. Who said that the printing press was the most powerful engine to progress?
3. She is the author of Amar Jiban
4. British introduced the Vernacular Press Act to
5. Ancient manuscripts were written on

Answer:

1. Scribes
2. Mercier
3. Rash Sundari Devi
4. Suppress the freedom of the Press
5. Palm leaves

3. Matching of Columns

Answer:

1.-(d) 2.-(a) 3.-(b) 4.-(e) 5.-(c)