Print Culture and Modern World Notes | Class 10 History

This chapter, Print Culture and the Modern World, traces how printing grew from hand-carved wood blocks in East Asia to the machine presses that reshaped Europe and India. It is one of the most important themes in your Class 10 History notes, because it shows how a single technology, cheap and repeatable printing, could spread new ideas, spark reform and revolution, and trigger a long fight over who controls what people read.

The First Printed Books

The earliest print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea.

Books in China were printed by rubbing paper against wood blocks. They could not print on both sides as the paper was thin and porous. The Chinese ‘Accordion Book’ was printed and stitched on one side. Before the books were printed, the text was copied by skilled craftsmen with accuracy.

The art of writing beautifully is called calligraphy.

Why was China the major producer of printed material?

China recruited its large number of bureaucrats (civil services officers) through examinations sponsored by the imperial state, and these examinations required a large number of textbooks for students to prepare from.

• Use by traders: As urbanisation and trade grew, merchants started using print to collect and store trade information.
• Leisure activity: Reading also became a leisure activity. Rich women began to read and write, and a lot of fiction, poetry, anthologies and autobiographies were also written.
• New technology: Mechanical presses and western printing techniques were also used, and soon Shanghai became the hub of new print culture.

The western ways of writing (schools) also began to flourish, and there was a gradual shift from hand printing to mechanical printing.

Print in Japan

Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand printing technology to Japan. The Buddhist ‘Diamond Sutra’ was the oldest Japanese book. Pictures began to be printed on various materials such as textiles, playing cards and money.

The illustrated collections of paintings depicted an elegant urban culture involving artisans, courtesans and teahouse gatherings.

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

What is ‘ukiyo’?

Kitagawa Utamaro, an artist born in Edo (Tokyo), contributed to the development of the ‘ukiyo’ art form. It refers to ‘pictures of the floating world’, or the depiction of ordinary human experiences, especially urban ones.

Print Comes to Europe

Chinese paper reached Europe through the silk route in the 11th century. Marco Polo brought the knowledge of print to Italy, from where it eventually spread to the whole of Europe.

The wealthy employed scribes or skilled hand writers to increase the production of handwritten manuscripts.

Luxury editions were still handwritten on very expensive vellum (calf skin), meant for aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries, which scoffed at printed books as cheap vulgarities.

Merchants and students in the university towns bought the cheaper printed copies. However, handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever increasing demand for books, because they were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or read easily. Copying was also an expensive, laborious and time-consuming business.

Gutenberg and the Printing Press

In the 1430s, Johann Gutenberg developed the printing press. He learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the expertise to create the lead moulds used for making trinkets.

The first book printed on Gutenberg’s printing press was the Bible, and it took three years to print 180 copies. He used the existing technology of the olive press to build his printing machine.

But this new printing technology did not displace the old art of handwritten manuscripts. The first printed books closely resembled written manuscripts in appearance and layout. Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and illustrations were painted.

In the books printed 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.

A New Reading Public

Between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe. Around 20 million copies of printed books flooded the European markets during the second half of the 15th century. The time and labour required for producing each book fell sharply, and multiple copies could be produced with greater ease.

Common people now had access to books, and so the oral culture of a hearing public was gradually replaced by a reading public.

How did oral culture enter print, and how was printed material orally transmitted?

Printers began publishing new ballads and folktales with illustrated pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns, for those people who could not read. Oral culture thus entered print, and printed material was orally transmitted.

The line that separated oral and reading cultures became blurred, and the hearing public and the reading public became intermingled.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

The new printed literature was criticised, because it was feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read, then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread. Those who disagreed with established authorities could now print and circulate their ideas.

1517: A religious reformer, Martin Luther, wrote his Ninety-five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. It challenged the Church to debate his ideas. Deeply grateful to print, Luther said: ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.’

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.

1558: The Roman Church, troubled by the effects of popular reading and the questioning of faith, imposed several controls over publishers and booksellers, and began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books.

Menocchio, a miller in Italy, was hauled up twice and ultimately executed, because he reinterpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.

Several scholars think that print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the Reformation.

The Reading Mania

By the end of the 18th century, literacy rates in Europe were as high as 60% to 80%. Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to peasants and artisans.

New forms of literature appeared in print that targeted new audiences. There were almanacs (astronomical calendars) or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folktales.

In England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars known as chapmen. They were sold for a penny, so even the poor could afford them.

In France, there were the Bibliotheque Bleue, low-priced small books printed on poor quality paper and bound in cheap blue covers.

• Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published.
• Maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed.
• The discoveries of Isaac Newton and the writings of Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed and read.

People believed that books could change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason and intellect would rule.

Print Culture and the French Revolution

Print culture created the conditions within which the French Revolution occurred. It did not directly shape people’s minds, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.

Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers

They attacked the sacred authority of the Church and the despotic powers of the state, thus eroding the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition.

Voltaire and Rousseau were widely read. All values, norms and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by a public that was inquisitive, critical and rational. Hence, new ideas of social revolution came into being.

By the 1780s, literature mocked the royalty and criticised their morality. This led to the growth of hostile sentiments against the monarchy.

Louis-Sebastien Mercier, a novelist in eighteenth-century France, declared: ‘The printing press is the most powerful engine of progress, and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.’

In many of Mercier’s novels, the heroes are transformed by acts of reading. They devour books, are lost in the world that books create, and become enlightened in the process. Convinced of the power of print in bringing enlightenment and destroying the basis of despotism, Mercier proclaimed: ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’

Children, Women and Workers

As primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century, children became an important category of readers.

1857: A children’s press devoted to literature for children alone was set up in France. This press published new works as well as old fairy tales and folk tales. The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants.

Anything that was considered unsuitable for children, or that would appear vulgar to the elites, was not included in the published version. Rural folk tales thus acquired a new form. In this way, print recorded old tales but also changed them.

Women became important readers and writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.

The writings of George Eliot, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters were read and enjoyed. Their writings became important in defining a new type of woman: a person with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.

Further Innovations

By the mid-19th century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-driven cylindrical press, which printed 8,000 sheets per hour.

In the late 19th century, the offset press was developed, which could print up to six colours at a time.

From the turn of the 20th century, presses were operated electrically, methods of feeding paper were improved, the quality of plates became better, and automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were introduced.

With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, publishers feared a decline in book purchases. To sustain buying, they brought out cheap paperback editions.

1920s: In England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling Series. Book jackets were also introduced.

In the 19th century, lending libraries in England became instruments for educating white-collar workers, artisans and lower middle-class people. After the working day was gradually shortened from the mid-nineteenth century, workers had some time for self-improvement and self-expression. They wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.

India and the World of Print

India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and other vernacular languages. Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper.

They were preserved between wooden covers or sewn together. They were highly expensive and fragile, and could not be read easily.

Even though pre-colonial Bengal had developed an extensive network of village primary schools, students very often did not read texts. They only learnt to write.

Teachers dictated portions of texts from memory and students wrote them down. Many thus became literate without ever actually reading any kind of text.

Print Comes to India

• Mid-16th century: The first printing press came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries. By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in the Konkani and Kannada languages.
• Cochin, 1579: Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book, and also printed Malayalam books to propagate their religion.

By 1710, Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts.

From 1780: James Augustus Hickey began editing the Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine. Hickey published many advertisements, including some relating to the import and sale of slaves, but he also published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior officials in India.

Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey, and encouraged the publication of officially sanctioned newspapers that could counter the flow of information that damaged the image of the colonial government.

Note: The first newspaper printed in India was the Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

From the early 19th century, there were intense debates around religious issues. Some criticised existing practices and campaigned for reform, while others countered the arguments of the reformers.

Public tracts and newspapers spread the new ideas and generated discussion and expression from the public.

• 1821: Raja Rammohun Roy published the ‘Sambad Kaumudi’, and the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions.
• From 1822: Two Persian newspapers were published, the Jam-i-Jahan Nama and the Shamsul Akhbar. A Gujarati newspaper, the Bombay Samachar, was also published.
• In North India, the ulema were deeply anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties. They used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious tracts and newspapers.
• The Deoband Seminary, founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in their everyday lives, and explaining the meanings of Islamic doctrines.
• Calcutta, 1810: The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, a 16th-century text, appeared.
• From the 1880s, the Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and the Shri Venkateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in the vernaculars.

New Forms of Publication

New literary forms such as novels, lyrics, short stories and essays about political and social matters reinforced a new emphasis on human lives and intimate feelings, and on the political and social rules that shaped them. By the end of the 19th century, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.

Painters such as Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Cheap prints and calendars were easily available in the bazaar. These prints shaped ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics, and society and culture.

By the 1870s, there were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as nationalist cartoons criticising imperial rule.

Women and Print

Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to school. Many journals began carrying writings by women and explained why women should be educated.

Conservative Hindus, on the other hand, believed that a literate girl would be widowed, and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.

• 1876: Rashsundari Debi’s autobiography, Amar Jiban, was published. It was the first full-length autobiography published in the Bengali language.
• From the 1860s: A few Bengali women, such as Kailashbashini Debi, wrote books highlighting the experiences of women.
• 1880s (Maharashtra): Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.

While Urdu, Tamil, Bengali and Marathi print culture had developed early, Hindi printing began seriously only from the 1870s. Soon, a large segment of it was devoted to the education of women.

These journals discussed issues like women’s education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement. Some of them offered household and fashion lessons to women, and brought entertainment through short stories and serialised novels.

Conservative Print

• In Punjab, Ram Chaddha published Istri Dharm Vichar to teach women how to be obedient wives.
• The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar message. Many of these were in the form of dialogues about the qualities of a good woman.

Print and the Poor People

Very cheap and small books were brought to markets in the nineteenth century and sold at crossroads, allowing poor people travelling to markets to buy them.

Public libraries were set up from the early twentieth century. These libraries were mostly located in cities and towns, and at times in prosperous villages.

• 1871: Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri.
• In the 20th century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, better known as Periyar, wrote powerfully on caste, and their writings were read by people all over India.
• 1938: Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal. The poems of Kashibaba and Sudarshan Chakra (another Kanpur millworker) were compiled in Sacchi Kavitayen.

By the 1930s, Bangalore cotton millworkers set up libraries to educate themselves. These were sponsored by social reformers who tried to restrict excessive drinking among the workers, to bring literacy, and, sometimes, to spread the message of nationalism.

Print and Censorship

Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was not too concerned with censorship.

By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to control press freedom, and the Company began encouraging the publication of newspapers that would celebrate British rule.

In 1835, faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and vernacular newspapers, Governor-General William Bentinck agreed to revise the press laws. Thomas Macaulay formulated new rules that restored the earlier freedoms.

After the revolt of 1857, press freedoms were clamped down.

1878: The Vernacular Press Act was passed, modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It gave the government extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press.

1907: When the Punjab revolutionaries were deported, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his Kesari. This led to his imprisonment in 1908. During the First World War, under the Defence of India Rules, 22 newspapers had to furnish securities.

Why it still matters

The big idea of this chapter is simple: when information becomes cheap and easy to copy, it changes the world. Print let ordinary people read for themselves, share ideas, question rulers and priests, and imagine a different society. That is exactly why kings and churches feared it and tried to censor it. The same tug of war, between the free flow of information and the urge to control it, is very much alive today.

Think about press freedom. In 2025, the watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranked India 151st out of 180 countries in its World Press Freedom Index, placing it in the ‘very serious’ category, though slightly higher than its rank of 159 in 2024. When you read about the Vernacular Press Act of 1878 in this chapter, you are reading the distant ancestor of debates about press freedom that are still in the news.

Now think about the shift from print to screens. According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, which surveyed 48 countries, more people in the United States now get their news from social media and video platforms (54%) than from television (50%) or news websites (48%). This is the first time social and video have topped the list. Just as printed ballads once replaced word of mouth, feeds and short videos are now replacing the printed newspaper. And the very worry that troubled the Roman Church, that no one controls what people read, is today’s debate about misinformation and fake news online.

So this chapter is not only about the past. It is a guide to how ideas travel, and to who gets to decide what is true. If you want to see how those threads connect to today’s world, explore the themes in our Learnacy Hub, and find more study notes and explainers in our Resources library.

Sources

1. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Digital News Report 2025, Overview and key findings: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2025/dnr-executive-summary
2. Reporters Without Borders, World Press Freedom Index 2025 (India ranked 151 of 180), reported by Outlook India: https://www.outlookindia.com/national/india-ranks-151-out-of-180-countries-in-world-press-freedom-index-2025-rsf-calls-it-one-of-worlds-most-dangerous-countries
3. Forbes India, World Press Freedom Index 2025 explained: https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/world-press-freedom-index-explained/96146/1