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NCERT Class 10 Social Science Print Culture and the Modern World: Write in brief Solutions

Point-by-point answers for every question of Exercises: Write in brief in NCERT's Class 10 Social Science book, chapter “Print Culture and the Modern World”, written by Shishya. Each question is in our own short words; open the NCERT chapter for the exact wording and figures.

1. Write in brief Q1(a)

   Give reasons: woodblock print came to Europe only after 1295.

   1. China had already developed the technology for woodblock printing before 1295.
   2. Marco Polo returned to Italy in 1295 after exploring China for many years.
   3. He brought the knowledge of woodblock printing back to Europe with him.
   4. Italians then began producing books using this new technology.

   Answer: Woodblock print reached Europe after 1295 because Marco Polo brought the knowledge from China upon his return.

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2. Write in brief Q1(b)

   Give reasons: Martin Luther favoured print and praised it.

   1. Martin Luther translated the New Testament into a language people could understand.
   2. His printed translation sold five thousand copies within a few weeks.
   3. A second edition was released within three months due to high demand.
   4. Luther called printing the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.
   5. Print allowed his ideas to spread widely and challenge the Catholic Church.

   Answer: Martin Luther praised print because it helped spread his religious ideas quickly and widely, leading to the Protestant Reformation.

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3. Write in brief Q1(c)

   Give reasons: the Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited Books from the mid-sixteenth century.

   1. Print allowed ordinary people to read and form their own interpretations of religious texts.
   2. This led to the spread of heretical ideas and dissenting views that challenged Church authority.
   3. The Church imposed strict controls on publishers and booksellers to stop the circulation of such books.

   Answer: The Roman Catholic Church started the Index of Prohibited Books in 1558 to control the spread of heretical and dissenting ideas caused by the widespread availability of printed religious literature.

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4. Write in brief Q1(d)

   Give reasons: Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press and freedom of association.

   1. Gandhi noted that the colonial government was trying to stop the main ways people shared their views.
   2. He identified these ways as the right to speak, the freedom of newspapers, and the ability to group together.
   3. He argued that the struggle for self-rule was actually a battle to protect these threatened rights.

   Answer: Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj was a fight for these freedoms because the government was trying to stop people from expressing their opinions.

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5. Write in brief Q2(a)

   Write a short note on the Gutenberg press.

   1. Johann Gutenberg developed the first known printing press in Strasbourg, Germany, during the 1430s.
   2. He adapted existing technology, using the olive press as a model and metal moulds to create movable types for letters.
   3. The press could print 250 sheets per hour, making book production much faster than hand carving.
   4. Gutenberg printed the first book, the Bible, with about 180 copies produced over three years.
   5. This moveable type printing machine remained the basic print technology for the next 300 years.

   Answer: The Gutenberg press was a revolutionary moveable type printing machine developed in the 1430s that used metal types and an olive press model to produce books quickly and efficiently.

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6. Write in brief Q2(b)

   Write a short note on Erasmus's idea of the printed book.

   1. Erasmus, a Latin scholar and Catholic reformer, was deeply anxious about printing; he wrote about it in his Adages (1508).
   2. He felt that only a few of the swarms of new books contributed something worth knowing, and that their sheer number created a glut that harmed scholarship.
   3. He feared printers were filling the world with stupid, ignorant, slanderous, scandalous, irreligious and seditious books.

   Answer: Erasmus distrusted the printed book: he feared the flood of cheap books would harm learning and spread worthless, scandalous and seditious ideas.

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7. Write in brief Q2(c)

   Write a short note on the Vernacular Press Act.

   1. The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878 and was modelled on the Irish Press Laws.
   2. It gave the colonial government extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in vernacular newspapers.
   3. The government kept regular track of vernacular newspapers published in different provinces.
   4. If a report was judged seditious, the newspaper was warned, and if ignored, the press could be seized and machinery confiscated.

   Answer: The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 allowed the colonial government to censor vernacular newspapers and seize presses that ignored warnings against seditious reports.

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8. Write in brief Q3(a)

   What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth-century India mean to women?

   1. Print culture allowed women to express their own experiences and emotions in literature.
   2. Women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote about being imprisoned at home and treated unjustly.
   3. Authors such as Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai criticized the miserable lives of upper-caste widows.
   4. Some women defied family prohibitions to learn reading and writing in their own languages.
   5. Printed books provided a source of happiness and escape for women confined by social regulations.

   Answer: Print culture gave women a voice to critique social restrictions, share personal experiences, and seek education despite conservative opposition.

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9. Write in brief Q3(b)

   What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth-century India mean to the poor?

   1. Very cheap small books were sold at crossroads in nineteenth-century Madras towns, so poor people going to markets could buy them.
   2. Public libraries set up from the early twentieth century widened access to books, mostly in cities and towns.
   3. Print let the injustice of caste be written about: Jyotiba Phule's Gulamgiri (1871), and later the writings of B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar (E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker), were read all over India.
   4. A few workers wrote too: Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 on caste and class exploitation, and millworkers in Bangalore and Bombay set up libraries to educate themselves.

   Answer: For the poor, print meant cheap books and libraries to read from, and a voice against caste and class oppression through writers like Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar and Kashibaba.

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10. Write in brief Q3(c)

    What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth-century India mean to reformers?

    1. Print became a forum for debate between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy on issues such as widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry.
    2. Debates were printed in everyday spoken languages so that they reached a wider public: Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821, and the orthodoxy answered with the Samachar Chandrika.
    3. Muslim reformers used print too; the Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, printed thousands of fatwas guiding Muslim readers on how to live day to day.
    4. Reformers such as Jyotiba Phule used printed tracts to attack caste injustice.

    Answer: For reformers, print was a way to spread their ideas on social and religious reform to a wide public in local languages and to debate with orthodox opponents.

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