Questions & Answers

SUBJECT: HISTORY GRADE 10

Chapter: The Rise of Nationalism in Europe
1. What is meant by the following
a) Nation state
i) When people living in a particular region develop an identity, with
definite boundary, a common ruler and common culture, it is called a nation state.
ii) A nation-state was one in which the majority of its citizens, and not only its rulers,
came to develop a sense of common identity and shared history or descent.
iii) This commonness did not exist from time immemorial; it was forged through
struggles, through the actions of leaders and the common people.

b) Nationalism
Nationalism is the love and patriotic feeling for one’s own country.
It promotes a sense of belongingness and unity amongst people.

c) Liberalism
The term liberalism is derived from the Latin word ‘Liber’ meaning free.
It stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges.
Emphasized the concept of constitution and representatives’ government through parliament.

d) Plebiscite
A direct vote by which all the people of a region are asked to accept or reject a proposal.

e) Utopian
A vision of a society that is so ideal that it is unlikely to actually exist.

2. Who were the conservatives?

Conservatives were those who believed that established, traditional institutions of state and
society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be
preserved. They were against liberals.

3. Define Conservatism
Conservatism – A political philosophy that stressed the importance of tradition, established
institutions and customs, and preferred gradual development to quick change.

4. Which revolution was the first clear expression of nationalism?

• It was the French Revolution, which was started in the year 1789.
• It marked the transfer of power from monarch to a body of French citizen.

5. Who comprised the new middle class?

Industrialists, Businessmen, Professionals (professors, school teachers, clerks, etc.)

6. Describe the series of four prints visualising the dream of a world made up of ‘democratic
and social Republics’ prepared by the French artist Frédéric Sorrieu in 1848.
In 1848, Frédéric Sorrieu, a French artist, prepared a series of four prints visualising his dream of
a world made up of ‘democratic and social Republics’, as he called them.

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 • The first print of the series, shows the peoples of Europe and America – men and women of all
ages and social classes – marching in a long train, and offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as
they pass by it. In Sorrieu’s utopian vision, the peoples of the world are grouped as distinct
nations, identified through their flags and national costume. Leading the procession, way past the
statue of Liberty, are the United States and Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria, etc.

• The second print: Artists of the time of the French Revolution personified Liberty as a female
figure – here we can recognise the torch of Enlightenment she bears in one hand and the Charter
of the Rights of Man in the other.
• The third print: On the earth in the foreground of the image lie the shattered remains of the
symbols of absolutist institutions.
• The fourth print: From the heavens above, Christ, saints and angels gaze upon the scene. They
have been used by the artist to symbolise fraternity among the nations of the world.

7. What step did the French Revolutionaries take to create a sense of collective identity among
the French people?
OR
Analyse the measures and practices introduced by the French revolutionaries to create a
sense of collective identity amongst the French people.
The first clear expression of nationalism came with the French Revolution in 1789. The
political and constitutional changes that came in the wake of the French Revolution led to the
transfer of sovereignty from the monarchy to a body of French citizens.
The French revolutionaries introduced various measures and practices that could create a
sense of collective identity amongst the French people.
• The ideas of la patrie (the fatherland) and le citoyen (the citizen) emphasised the notion of a
united community enjoying equal rights under a constitution
• The new French flag, the tri-colours, replaced the formal Royal Standard.
• The Estate General was renamed as the National Assembly elected by body of active citizens.
• New hymns were composed and oaths were taken. Martyrs commemorated.
• A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all
citizens within its territory. Internal customs duties and dues were abolished and a uniform
system of weights and measures was adopted.
• Regional dialects were discouraged; French was made the common language of the nation.
Also declared that The French-nation would liberate the people of Europe from despotism.

8. What were Jacobin clubs? How did the activities and campaigns help to spread the idea of
nationalism abroad? Explain.
The political revolutionary clubs formed in France for the replacement of autocratic regimes by
the democratic government were called the Jacobin clubs. Their activities and campaigns
helped to spread the idea of nationalism abroad in the following ways:
a. The French armies were able to move into Holland, Belgium, and Switzerland.
b. The French armies were able to spread the ideas of nationalism in other countries of the world
after the outbreak of the revolutionary wars.

9. What changes did Napoleon introduce to make the administrative system more efficient in
the territories ruled by him?
OR
Napoleon had destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field, he had
incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole system more rational and
efficient. Analyse the statement with arguments.
OR

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 “Napoleon had, no doubt destroyed democracy in France, but in the administrative field he
had incorporated revolutionary principles in order to make the whole system more rational
and efficient”. Support the statement.
• Administration became more efficient. Napoleon introduced revolutionary principles in the
administration making it more efficient and rational.
• The Civil Code of 1804, known as Napoleonic Code, did away with all the privileges based on
birth, established equality before the law and secured the right to property.
• He simplified administrative divisions, abolished feudal system and
freed peasants from serfdom and dues.
• Guild restrictions were removed, transport and communication improved.
• Peasants, artisans, workers and new businessmen enjoyed new-found freedom.
• Uniform laws, standardized weights and measures facilitated the movement of goods and capital
from one region to another.

10. How did the local people in the areas conquered by Napoleon react to French rule? Explain.
The local people in the areas conquered by Napoleon had a mixed reaction to French rule.
• The businessman and the small producers welcomed the economic reforms introduced by
Napoleon.
• Initially, the French armies were recognized as the messenger of liberty but later on it was realised
that administrative reforms cannot go hand in hand with political reform.
• The people did not like the increased taxation and censorship.

11. Why there were no nation-states before the mid of eighteenth-century in Europe?
• Germany, Italy, and Switzerland were divided into kingdoms, duchies, and cantons rulers had
their autonomous territories.
• Eastern and Central Europe were under autocratic monarchies within the territories of which lived
diverse peoples. They did not see themselves as sharing a collective identity or a common culture.
• Often, they even spoke different languages and belonged to different ethnic groups.
• The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a patchwork of many
different regions and peoples.
a) It included the Alpine regions – the Tyrol, Austria and the Sudetenland – as well as
Bohemia, where the aristocracy was predominantly German speaking.
b) It also included the Italian-speaking provinces of Lombardy and Venetia. In Hungary,
half of the population spoke Magyar while the other half spoke a variety of dialects.
c) In Galicia, the aristocracy spoke Polish. Besides these three dominant groups, there also
lived within the boundaries of the empire, a mass of subject peasant peoples.
d) Such differences did not easily promote a sense of political unity. The only tie binding
these diverse groups together was a common allegiance to the emperor.
(The Habsburg Empire that ruled over Austria-Hungary, for example, was a patchwork of
many different regions and peoples. Give reason.
Refer points a, b, c, d)

12. How was aristocracy organized in Europe in the 18th century?

• Aristocracy was the dominant class in Europe united by common way of life.
• Rich people owned estates in the countryside and also town houses.
• Spoke French for purpose of diplomacy.
• Formed only a small group.
• Families often connected by ties of marriage.

13. How did the rise of new middle class help in the emergence of nationalist sentiments in
Europe?

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 • In Western and parts of Central Europe the growth of industrial production and trade meant the
growth of towns and the emergence of commercial classes whose existence was based on
production for the market.
• Industrialisation began in England in the second half of the eighteenth century, but in France and
parts of the German states it occurred only during the nineteenth century. In its wake, new social
groups came into being: a working-class population, and middle classes made up of industrialists,
businessmen, professionals.
• It was among the educated, liberal middle classes that ideas of national unity following the abolition
of aristocratic privileges gained popularity.

14. What did Liberal Nationalism Stand for? How did it strengthen nationalism in Europe?
• Ideas of national unity in early-nineteenth-century Europe were closely allied to the ideology of
liberalism. The term ‘liberalism’ derives from the Latin root liber, meaning free.
a. For the new middle classes liberalism stood for freedom for the individual and equality of
all before the law.
b. Politically, it emphasised the concept of government by consent. Since the French
Revolution, liberalism had stood for the end of autocracy and clerical privileges, a
constitution and representative government through parliament. Nineteenth-century
liberals also stressed the inviolability of private property.
c. In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of
state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital. During the nineteenth
century, this was a strong demand from the emerging middle classes.
d. The new commercial classes argued for the creation of a unified economic territory
allowing the unhindered movement of goods, people, and capital.
e. In 1834, a customs union, or Zollverein was formed at the initiative of Prussia and
joined by most of the German states. The union abolished tariff barriers and reduced the
number of currencies from over thirty to two.
f. The creation of a network of railways further stimulated mobility, harnessing economic
interests to national unification. A wave of economic nationalism strengthened the wider
nationalist sentiments growing at the time.
(How did a wave of economic nationalism strengthen the wider nationalist sentiments
growing in Europe? Explain. Refer to points c, d, e, f.)

15. Explain the conditions that were viewed as obstacles to the economic exchange and growth
by the new commercial classes during the 19th century in Europe.
The following were the conditions that were viewed as obstacles to the economic exchange and
growth by the new commercial classes during the 19th century in Europe:
• Restrictions were put on the movement of goods, capital and people by many states.
• There was a problem of time-consuming calculations due to the different system of weights
and measures in different confederations.
• There was a problem of price rise and delay in supply of goods due to so many check posts
and customs duties.
• Eg. A merchant travelling in 1833 from Hamburg to Nuremberg to sell his goods would
have had to pass through 11 customs barriers and pay a customs duty of about 5 per cent at
each one of them.

16. How did conservatives establish their power after 1815? (Or) How did the treaty of Vienna
change the map of Europe?
• The conservatives believed in modern army, an efficient bureaucracy and a dynamic economy.
• In 1815, the European powers-Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria defeated Napoleon at Vienna
to draw-up settlement of Europe.
• Austrian Chancellor-Duke Metternich hosted the conference. The treaty of Vienna of 1815 was
signed to undo most changes that came about during Napoleonic war.

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 • The Bourbon Dynasty was restored to power. France lost its territories, which was annexed
under Napoleon.
• To prevent further expansion of French territories, series of states were set upon boundaries.
a) Kingdom of Netherlands including Belgium was set-up in north.
b) Genoa was added to piedmont in south.
c) Prussia was given new territories in western frontiers and in the east a portion of Saxony
d) Austria was given the control of northern Italy.
e) Russia was given part of Poland.
f) 39 states of German Confederation were left untouched.

17. Explain the development in Europe that led to the rise of revolutionaries.
• Conservative regime set up in 1815 was autocratic. Did not tolerate criticism and dissent, and
sought to curb activities that questioned the legitimacy of autocratic government.
• Imposed censorship laws to control newspapers, books, plays and songs that reflected ideas of
liberty and freedom.
• Fear of repression during the Conservative regime drove many liberals underground. Secret
societies were formed, which were committed to oppose monarchy and fight for liberty and
freedom.
• One such individual was Italian revolutionary-Giuseppe Mazzini. Born in Genoa in 1807, he
became a member of secret society at Carbonari. At 24, he was sent to exile for attempting a
revolution in Liguria.
• Founded Young Italy in Marseilles and Young Europe in Berne, whose members were like-
minded people from Poland, France, Italy and German states.
• He believed that God had intended nations to be the natural units of mankind. Italy couldn’t
continue to be patchwork of small states and kingdoms.
• Following the model, secret societies were formed in Germany, France, Switzerland and Poland.
Metternich described him as the most dangerous enemy of social order.
(Write a short note on Giuseppe Mazzini.) (refer point 3 onwards)

18. Explain the Greek War of Independence.

• Greece had been a part of the Ottoman Empire since the 15th Century. Struggle for independence
began in 1821.
• Greece got support from Greeks living in exile and West-Europeans who had sympathies for
ancient Greek culture.
• Poets and artists lauded Greece as the cradle of European civilisation and mobilized public opinion
to support its struggle against Muslim Empire.
• The English Poet-Lord Byron, organized funds, fought in war and died of fever in 1824.
• Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognized Greece as an independent nation.

19. Explain the revolution of 1830’s with suitable examples.

• Liberal-nationalists belonging to the educated middle-class started revolution.
• The Bourbon kings were overthrown and the liberal nationalists installed a constitutional monarchy
with Louis Philippe at its head.
• Duke Metternich once remarked, “When France sneezes, the rest of Europe catches cold”.
• The July Revolution sparked an uprising in Brussels which led to Belgium breaking away from the
United Kingdom of Netherlands.
• Greece had been a part of the Ottoman Empire since the 15th Century. Struggle for independence
began in 1821. Treaty of Constantinople of 1832 recognized Greece as an independent nation.

20. Choose three examples to show the contribution of culture to the growth of nationalism in
Europe.
OR
Culture had played an important role in the development of nationalism in Europe
during the18th and 19th centuries. Support the statement with examples.
or
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 How did nationalism develop through culture in Europe? Explain.

• Culture played an important role in creating the idea of the nation: art and poetry, stories and music
helped express and shape nationalist feelings.
• Romanticism, a cultural movement which sought to develop a particular form of nationalist
sentiment.
• Romantic artists and poets generally criticised the glorification of reason and science and focused
instead on emotions, intuition and mystical feelings. Their effort was to create a sense of a shared
collective heritage, a common cultural past, as the basis of a nation.
Eg.1 German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder claimed that true German culture was to be
discovered among the common people – das volk. He popularized the true spirit of nationalism
through folk songs, folk poetry and folk dance.
Eg.2 Poland, had been partitioned at the end of the eighteenth century by the Great Powers – Russia,
Prussia and Austria. National feelings were kept alive through music and language. Karol
Kurpinski of Poland celebrated national struggle through his operas and music, turning folk
dances like Polonaise and Mazurka into nationalist symbols.
Eg.3 After Russian occupation in Poland, Russian language was imposed. a) In 1831, an armed
rebellion against Russian rule took place, which was ultimately crushed. b) Many members of the
clergy in Poland began to use language as a weapon of national resistance. As a result, a large
number of priests and bishops were put in jail or sent to Siberia by the Russian authorities as
punishment for their refusal to preach in Russian. c) Use of language became symbol of struggle
against Russian dominance.

21. Describe the economic hardships faced in Europe in 1830s.

OR
‘Great economic hardships in Europe prevailed in 1830’s’. Support the statement with
arguments.
OR
The 1830s were years of great economic hardship in Europe. Explain.

• The first half of the nineteenth century saw an enormous increase in population all over Europe.
There were more seekers of jobs than employment.
• Population from rural areas migrated to the cities and they lived in overcrowded slums.
• Small producers in towns were often faced with stiff competition from imports of cheap machine-
made goods from England, especially in textile production.
• In those regions of Europe where the aristocracy still enjoyed power, peasants struggled under the
burden of feudal dues and obligations.
• The rise of food prices or a year of bad harvest led to widespread pauperism in town and country.

22. Explain the development that took place in Paris in 1848?

• Food shortage and widespread unemployment brought population of Paris out on the roads.
• National Assembly proclaimed a republic.
• Louis Philippe was forced to flee.
• Granted suffrage to all adult males above 21-years-old.
• Guaranteed right to work.
• National work shops were set-up to provide employment.

23. What is meant by the 1848 revolution of the liberals?

• In the year 1848 the revolution was led by the educated middle classes.
• Events of February 1848 in France had brought about the abdication of the monarch Louis Philippe
and a republic based on universal male suffrage had been proclaimed.
• In other parts of Europe where independent nations did not exist men and women of the liberal
middle classes combined their demands for constitutionalism with national unification.

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 • They took advantage of the growing popular unrest to push their demands for the creation of a
nation-state on parliamentary principles – a constitution, freedom of the press and freedom of
association.

24. Write a short note on Frankfurt Parliament.

• A large number of political associations comprising of professionals, businessmen and prosperous
artisans decided to vote for all German National Assembly of Frankfurt.
• On 18th May-1848, 831 elected representatives marched in a festive procession to take their places
in the Frankfurt parliament convened at St. Paul’s Church.
• They drafted a constitution based on the system of constitution monarchy.
• When the deputies offered the crown to Friedrich Wilhelm IV, King of Prussia, he rejected and
joined with other monarchs.
• Opposition of Aristocracy and military became stronger.
• The parliament was dominated by the middle-classes who resisted the demands of artisans and
workers and finally lost their support.
• In the end, troops were called in and the assembly was forced to disband.

25. Write a note on role of women in nationalist struggles.

• The issue of extending political rights to women was controversial one within the liberal movement,
in which large number of women had participated actively over the years.
• Women had formed their own political associations, founded newspaper, took part in political
meetings and demonstrations.
• Despite all this, they were denied suffrage right during election of Frankfurt assembly.
• When the parliament convened at St. Paul’s Church, they were admitted only as observers to stand
in the visitors’ gallery.

26. Describe the various stages of the Unification of Italy.

• During the middle of the 19th century, Italy was divided into 7 states, of which only one, Sardinia-
Piedmont, was ruled by an Italian princely house. The north was under Austrian Habsburgs and the
central part under Pope. South was under Bourbon Kings of Spain. Even Italian language had no
common form.
• During the 1830’s Mazzini had sought to put together a coherent programme for a unitary Italian
republic. He formed a secret society called Young Italy, but the revolutionary uprisings both in
1831 and 1848 ended in failure.
• Now the task fell on King Victor Emmanuel-II to unify Italian states through war. A unified Italy
offered the possibility of economic development and political dominance.
• Chief Minister Cavour, who led the movement, was neither a revolutionary nor a democrat. He
spoke French better than Italian, like any wealthy and educated person did. Through his tactful
diplomatic alliance with France, he succeeded in defeating the Austrian force.
• A large number of armed volunteers under the leadership of Garibaldi joined the fray.
• In 1860 they marched into South-Italy and Kingdom of Two Sicilies and succeeded in winning the
support of local peasants in order to drive out the Spanish rulers.
• In 1861 Victor Emmanuel-II was proclaimed the king of United Italy.

27. Describe the process of the Unification of Germany.

• The middle-class Germans in 1848 tried to unite different units of the German confederation into
a nation-state governed by an elected parliament called Frankfurt Parliament. It was repressed
by combined forces of monarchy and military supported by large land-owners called as Junkers.
• Prussia took on the leadership for the movement for national unification. Its chief minister Otto
von Bismarck was the architect of the process of unification.
• With the help of the Prussian army & bureaucracy, he fought three wars over seven years with
Austria, Denmark & France. It ended in Prussian victory and completed the process of
unification.
• In 1871 Prussian King, William-I was proclaimed the emperor in a ceremony held at Versailles.
• The new state placed a strong emphasis on modernising the currency, banking, legal and judicial
systems in in Germany. Prussian measures and practices became a model for the rest of Germany.

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 28. How was the history of nationalism in Britain unlike the rest of Europe?
The formation of nation-state was not a sudden upheaval or revolution.
• There was no British nation prior to the eighteenth century. The primary identities of the
people who inhabited the British Isles were ethnic ones – such as English, Welsh, Scot or
Irish who had their own cultural and political traditions.
• The first step towards formation of nation-state was end of monarchy in 1688 by England. The
English Parliament which seized power from the monarchy became powerful.
• The Act of Union in 1707 brought Scotland under its control-forming United Kingdom of Britain.
a) Scotland’s culture and political institutions were suppressed. b) The Catholic clans that inhabited
the Scottish Highlands suffered terrible repression. c) They were not allowed to speak Gaelic
language and wear national dress. d) Large numbers of people were forcibly driven out of their
motherland.
• Ireland was divided between Catholics and Protestants. English helped Protestants to establish
dominance over Catholics. Catholics’ revolts were suppressed. After a failed revolt led by Wolfe
Tone and his united Irishmen in 1798, Ireland was forcibly incorporated into United Kingdom in
1801.
• The British flag (Union Jack) and National Anthem (God Save Our Noble King) became symbols
of New Britain.

29. Who were Marianne and Germania? What was the importance of the way in which they
were portrayed?
• Nations were portrayed as female figures. French revolution artists used female allegory ideas of
liberty, justice and republic.
• Attributes of liberty were red caps, broken chains and justice with blindfolded women carrying a
pair of weighing scales. Artists of 19th century invented similar female allegories.
• In France, she was named Marianne with red cap, the tricolour flag and cockade representing
liberty and republic. Statues were erected in public places and images marked on coins and stamps.
• Germania was the allegory of the German nation. Germania wears a crown of oak leaves, as
the German oak stands for heroism.

30. Why did nationalist tensions emerge in the Balkans?

OR
By the last quarter of the nineteenth century nationalism no longer retained its idealistic
liberal-democratic sentiment of the first half of the century, but became a narrow creed
with limited ends. Explain the statement.

• The most serious of nationalist tension in Europe after 1871was the area called the Balkans.
• Balkans was composed of modern Romania, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia-
Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro, broadly inhabited by Slavs.
• A large part of Balkans was under control of Ottoman Empire all through the 19th century. The
spread of the ideas of romantic nationalism in the Balkans together with the decline of the
Ottoman Empire made this region very explosive.
• As different Slavic nationalists struggled to define their identity and independence, the Balkan
became an area of intense conflict.
• Matters got further complicated because Balkan became the scene of big power rivalry.
• The European powers-Russia, Germany, England and Austria-Hungary competed with one-another
to extend control over this area. This led to series of war in the region and finally led to the First
World War.

• Nationalism aligned with imperialism, led Europe to disaster in 1914. Many countries began to
oppose imperial domination. At the end of the war many regions gained its independence.

(REFER THE TEXT BOOK Try to learn the answers from the Textbook)

Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24

 Questions & Answers
SUBJECT: HISTORY GRADE: 10
Chapter: Nationalism in India

1. What were the effects of the First World War in India?

• The war created a new economic and political situation. It led to a huge increase in
defense expenditure which was financed by war loans and increasing taxes.
• Customs duties were raised and Income tax was introduced.
• Through the war years prices increased –doubling between 1913 and 1918 – leading
to extreme hardship for the common people.
• Villages were called upon to supply soldiers and the forced recruitment in rural
areas caused widespread anger.
• Then in 1918-19 and 1920-21, crops failed in many parts of India,
resulting in acute shortages of food. This was accompanied by an
influenza epidemic. According to the census of 1921, 12 to 13 million
people perished as a result of famines and the epidemic.

2. When did Mahatma Gandhi return to India from South Africa?

• Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. He had come from

South Africa where he had successfully fought the racist regime with a novel
method of mass agitation, which he called satyagraha.

3. Write a short note on Satyagraha.

• The idea of satyagraha emphasised the power of truth and the need to search for
truth. It suggested that if the cause was true if the struggle was against injustice, then
the physical force was not necessary to fight the oppressor.
• Without seeking vengeance or being oppressive, a satyagrahi could win the battle
through non-violence. This could be done by appealing to the conscience of the
oppressor.
• People – including the oppressors – had to be persuaded to see the truth, instead
of being forced to accept the truth through the use of violence. Mahatma Gandhi
believed that this dharma of non-violence could unite all Indians.

4. What are the various satyagrahas organized by Gandhiji between 1917 &
1919?

• In 1917 Gandhiji travelled to Champaran in Bihar to inspire the peasants to

struggle against the oppressive plantation system.
• Then in 1917, he organised a satyagraha to support the peasants of the Kheda
district of Gujarat. Affected by crop failure and a plague epidemic, the
peasants of Kheda could not pay the revenue and were demanding that
revenue collection be relaxed.
• In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi went to Ahmedabad to organise a Satyagraha
movement amongst cotton mill workers.

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 • Gandhiji in 1919 decided to launch a nationwide Satyagraha against the
proposed Rowlatt Act (1919).

5. What were the provisions of the Rowlatt Act?

• It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities, and

allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
• Public meetings were banned.

6. What was the impact of the Rowlatt Act?

• Rallies were organised in various cities, workers went on strike in railway

workshops, and shops closed down.
• Alarmed by the popular upsurge, and scared that lines of communication such
as the railways and telegraph would be disrupted, the British administration
decided to clamp down on nationalists.
• Local leaders were picked up from Amritsar, and Mahatma Gandhi was barred
from entering Delhi.
• On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession,
provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices, and railway stations.
Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.
• On 13 April the infamous Jallianwala Bagh incident took place.

7. Write a short note on the Jallianwala Bagh incident.

• On 13 April the infamous Jallianwala Bagh incident took place. On that day a
crowd of villagers who had come to Amritsar to attend a fair gathered in the
enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh. Being from outside the city, they were
unaware of the martial law that had been imposed. Dyer entered the area,
blocked the exit points, and opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. His
object, as he declared later, was to ‘produce a moral effect’, to create in the
minds of satyagrahis a feeling of terror and awe.

8. What were the effects of the Jallianwala Bagh incident?

• As the news of Jallianwala Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets in many
north Indian towns. There were strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on
government buildings.
• The government responded with brutal repression, seeking to humiliate and
terrorise people: satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground,
crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs; people were flogged
and villages (around Gujranwala in Punjab, now in Pakistan) were bombed.
Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off the movement.

9. Describe the origin of the Khilafat movement. Or What was the

Khilafat movement.? Who were the leaders?

• The First World War ended with the defeat of Ottoman Turkey. And there

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 were rumours that a harsh peace treaty was going to be imposed on the
Ottoman emperor – the spiritual head of the Islamic world (the Khalifa).
• To defend the Khalifa’s temporal powers, a Khilafat Committee was formed in
Bombay in March 1919. A young generation of Muslim leaders like the
brothers Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali started this movement.

10. Why did Gandhiji support the Khilafat movement.?

• Gandhiji saw this as an opportunity to bring Muslims under the umbrella of a

unified national movement. At the Calcutta session of the Congress in
September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-
cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for Swaraj.

11. How could non-cooperation become a movement?

Gandhiji proposed that the movement should unfold in stages.

• It should begin with the surrender of titles that the government awarded,
• A boycott of civil services, army, police, courts and legislative councils,
schools, and foreign goods.
• Then, in case the government used repression, a full civil disobedience
campaign would be launched.

Through the summer of 1920, Mahatma Gandhi and Shaukat Ali toured
extensively, mobilising popular support for the movement. Many within the
were, however, concerned about the proposals. They were reluctant to
boycott the council elections scheduled for November 1920, and they feared
that the movement might lead to popular violence. For a while, there seemed
no meeting point between the supporters and the opponents of the movement.
• Finally, at the Congress session at Nagpur in December 1920, a compromise
was worked out and the Non-Cooperation programme was adopted.

12. How did the people respond to the call of Swaraj in the Non-Cooperation
movement?

A. The movement in Towns. (*Explain the NCM in the towns.)

• The movement started with middle-class participation in the cities.

Thousands of students left government-controlled schools and colleges,
headmasters and teachers resigned, and lawyers gave up their legal
practices.
• The council elections were boycotted in most provinces except Madras, where
the Justice Party, the party of the non-Brahmans, felt that entering the council
was one way of gaining some power.

• The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more

dramatic. Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed,
and foreign cloth burnt in huge bonfires.

• The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping
from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. In many places merchants and traders
Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24
 refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.

• As the boycott movement spread, and people began discarding imported

clothes and wearing only Indian ones, production of Indian textile mills and
handlooms went up.

B. Rebellion in the Countryside

From the cities, the Non-Cooperation Movement spread to the

countryside.
• In Awadh, peasants were led by Baba Ramchandra. The movement here was
against talukdars and landlords who demanded from peasants exorbitantly high
rents and a variety of other cesses.
• Peasants had to do begar and work at landlords’ farms without any
payment. As tenants, they had no security of tenure and no right over the
leased land.
• The peasant movement demanded a reduction of revenue, abolition of
begar, and social boycott of oppressive landlords.
• In many places nai – dhobi bandhs were organized by panchayats
to deprive landlords of the services of even barbers and washer
men.
• In June 1920, Jawaharlal Nehru began going around the villages
in Awadh, talking to the villagers, and trying to understand their
grievances. By October, the Oudh Kisan Sabha was set up and
headed by Jawaharlal Nehru, Baba Ramchandra, and a few others.
(*Explain the movement. in the countryside. OR Who led the NCM in the
Awadh region? Why? What were the demands? What was its impact?)

C. The Tribal Movement in the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh led

by Alluri Sitaram Raju.

• In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh, for instance, a militant guerrilla

• movement spread in the early 1920s.
• As in other forest regions, the colonial government had
• closed large forest areas, preventing people from entering the
forests to graze their cattle,
• to collect fuelwood and fruits.
• the government began forcing them to contribute begar for road
building.
This enraged the hill people. Not only were their livelihoods affected but
they felt that their traditional rights were being denied. So they revolted.
• The person who came to lead them was Alluri Sitaram Raju claimed that
he had a variety of special powers.
• Captivated by Raju, the rebels proclaimed that he was an incarnation of
God.
• Raju talked of the greatness of Mahatma Gandhi, said he was inspired by
the Non-Cooperation Movement and persuaded people to wear khadi and
give up drinking.
• But at the same time, he asserted that India could be liberated only by the
use of force, not non-violence.
Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24
 • The Gudem rebels attacked police stations, attempted to kill British
officials and carried on guerrilla warfare for achieving swaraj.
Raju was captured and executed in 1924, and over time became a folk hero.
(Explain the Tribal Movement in the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh led by
Alluri Sitaram Raju.)

D. Swaraj in the Plantations

• For plantation workers in Assam, freedom meant the right to move freely in and out
of the confined space in which they were enclosed, and it meant retaining a link with the
village from which they had come.
• Under the Inland Emigration Act of 1859 plantation workers were not
permitted to leave the tea gardens without permission, and in fact they were
rarely given such permission.
• When they heard of the Non-Cooperation Movement thousands of workers
defied the authorities, left the plantations, and headed home. They believed that
Gandhi Raj was coming and everyone would be given land in their own
villages.
• They, however, never reached their destination. Stranded on the way by a
railway and steamer strike, they were caught by the police and brutally beaten
up.
(* How did the plantation workers respond to the call of Swaraj? Or
Highlight the conditions of the plantation workers during NCM.)

13. What were the economic effects of the Non-Cooperation Movement?

• The effects of non-cooperation on the economic front were more dramatic.

Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops picketed, and foreign cloth burnt
in huge bonfires.

• The import of foreign cloth halved between 1921 and 1922, its value dropping
from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore. In many places merchants and traders
refused to trade in foreign goods or finance foreign trade.
• As the boycott movement spread, and people began discarding imported
clothes and wearing only Indian ones, production of Indian textile mills and
handlooms went up.

14. Why did some leaders within the Congress feel a necessity in participating
in the elections to the provincial councils? Or Who founded the Swaraj
party? What was its aim?

• Within the Congress, some leaders were by now tired of mass struggles and
wanted to participate in elections to the provincial councils that had been set
up by the Government of India Act of 1919
• They felt that it was important to oppose British policies within the councils,
argue for reform and also demonstrate that these councils were not truly
democratic.
• C.R. Das and Motilal Nehru formed the Swaraj Party within the Congress to
argue for a return to council politics.

Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24

 15. State the factors that shaped Indian politics towards the late 1920s.
• Effect of the worldwide economic depression: Agricultural prices began to
fall from 1926 and collapsed after 1930. As the demand for agricultural
goods fell and exports declined, peasants found it difficult to sell their
harvests and pay their revenue. By 1930, the countryside was in turmoil.
• The new Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission
under Sir John Simon. Set up in response to the nationalist movement, the
commission was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system
in India and suggest changes.

16. Why was the Statutory Commission set up? Who led the Commission?

• The new Tory government in Britain constituted a Statutory Commission

under Sir John Simon. Set up in response to the nationalist movement, the
commission was to look into the functioning of the constitutional system in
India and suggest changes. The problem was that the commission did not have
a single Indian member. They were all British.

17. Why was Simon commission boycotted?

• The Commission did not have a single Indian member. They were all British
• There was no hope for Swaraj.

18. What were the offers announced by Lord Irwin in Oct. 1929?
• Lord Irwin, announced in October 1929, a vague offer of ‘dominion status’
for India in an unspecified future, and a Round Table Conference to discuss a
future constitution.

19. What was formalized by the Lahore Congress in December 1929?

• In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore

Congress formalized the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence
for India
• It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as Independence
Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete independence
• To launch a Civil Disobedience movement if the demands were not met.

20. Why did the Congress change its goal from Swaraj to Purna Swaraj?

• The worldwide economic depression. Agricultural prices began to fall from

1926 and collapsed after 1930. As the demand for agricultural goods fell and
exports declined, peasants found it difficult to sell their harvests and pay their
revenue.
• A Statutory Commission under Sir John Simon was set up in response to the
nationalist movement. The problem was that the commission did not have a
single Indian member. They were all British.
• In an effort to win them over, the viceroy, Lord Irwin, announced in October
1929, a vague offer of ‘dominion status’ for India in an unspecified future, and
a Round Table Conference to discuss a future constitution. This did not satisfy
the Congress leaders.
• The radicals within the Congress, led by Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas
Chandra Bose, became more assertive. The liberals and moderates, who were
Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24
 proposing a constitutional system within the framework of British dominion,
gradually lost their influence.
• In December 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Lahore
Congress formalised the demand of ‘Purna Swaraj’ or full independence for
India. It was declared that 26 January 1930, would be celebrated as
Independence Day when people were to take a pledge to struggle for complete
independence.

21. Why was salt a powerful symbol that would unite the nation?
• Salt was something consumed by the rich and the poor alike, and it was one of
the most essential items of food. The tax on salt and the government monopoly
over its production, Mahatma Gandhi declared, revealed the most oppressive
face of British rule.

22. State the demands made by Gandhiji in his letter to Irwin.

On 31 January 1930, he sent a letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands.

• Some of these were of general interest; others were specific demands of
different classes, from industrialists to peasants.
• The idea was to make the demands wide-ranging, so that all classes within
Indian society could identify with them and everyone could be brought
together in a united campaign.
• The most stirring of all was the demand to abolish the salt tax.

23. What marked the beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement?

DANDI MARCH
• Irwin was unwilling to negotiate to the demands of Mahatma Gandhi in his
letter. So, Mahatma Gandhi started his famous salt march accompanied by 78
of his trusted volunteers.
• The march was over 240 miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the
Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. The volunteers walked for 24 days, about 10
miles a day.
• Thousands came to hear Mahatma Gandhi wherever he stopped, and he told
them what he meant by Swaraj and urged them to peacefully defy the British.
On 6 April he reached Dandi, and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing
salt by boiling sea water.

24. How was the Civil Disobedience Movement different from the Non-
Cooperation Movement?

NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT
• Launched in January 1921. The Rowlatt Act and the injustice done to Turkey
and Jallianwalabagh massacre were the causes of the Non-cooperation
Movement.
• During this movement people were asked not to cooperate with the British.
• Many leaders renounced their titles
• Students and teachers boycotted the schools and colleges & universities.
• Many people left their government jobs. Foreign cloth was boycotted, and
liquor shops were picketed.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE MOVEMENT

Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24
 • Launched in 1930 with the Dandi March. Rejection of Gandhiji’s eleven
demands was the immediate cause of the Civil Disobedience Movement.
• People were now asked not only to refuse cooperation with the British but
also to break colonial laws.
• Thousands in different parts of the country broke the salt law, manufactured
salt, and demonstrated in front of government salt factories.
• As the movement spread, foreign cloth was boycotted, and liquor shops were
picketed.
• Peasants refused to pay revenue and chaukidari taxes, village officials
resigned, and in many places forest people violated forest laws – going into
Reserved Forests to collect wood and graze cattle.

25. What was the result of the Civil Disobedience Movement? Or What were the
repressive measures taken by the Colonial Government?

• Worried by the developments, the colonial government began arresting the

Congress leaders one by one. This led to violent clashes in many palaces.
• When Abdul Ghaffar Khan, a devout disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, was
arrested in April 1930, angry crowds demonstrated in the streets of Peshawar,
facing armoured cars and police firing.
• Many were killed. A month later, when Mahatma Gandhi himself was
arrested, industrial workers in Sholapur attacked police posts, municipal
buildings, lawcourts and railway stations – all structures that symbolised
British rule.
• A frightened government responded with a policy of brutal repression.
Peaceful satyagrahis were attacked, women and children were beaten, and
about 100,000 people were arrested.
In such a situation, Mahatma Gandhi once again decided to call off the movement

26. Describe the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Or What were the decisions taken in
the Gandhi- Irwin pact?
• Mahatma Gandhi decided to call off the movement and entered into a pact
with Irwin on 5 March 1931, which was famously known as the ‘Gandhi-
Irwin Pact’.
• Gandhiji consented to participate in the Second Round Table
Conference (the Congress boycotted the First Round Table
Conference) in London.
• The British government agreed to release the political prisoners.
• In December 1931, Gandhiji went to London for the conference, but the
negotiations broke down and he returned disappointed.

27. What were the demands of the:-

A. Rich peasant communities
B. Poorer peasantry
C. Business classes.
Or
Why did they join the CDM? What were their ideals? What did swaraj mean to
them?
A. Rich peasant communities:
• In the countryside, rich peasant communities-like the Patidars of Gujarat and
the Jats of Uttar Pradesh – were active in the movement.
Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24
 • Being producers of commercial crops, they were very hard hit by the trade
depression and falling prices. As their cash income disappeared, they found it
impossible to pay the government’s revenue demand.
• And the refusal of the government to reduce the revenue demand led to
widespread resentment.
• These rich peasants became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil Disobedience
Movement, organizing their communities, and at times forcing reluctant
members, to participate in the boycott programmes.
• For them the fight for swaraj was a struggle against high revenues.

A) Poorer peasantry:
• The poorer peasantry was not just interested in the lowering of the revenue
demand. Many of them were small tenants cultivating land they had rented
from landlords.
• As the Depression continued and cash incomes dwindled, the small tenants
found it difficult to pay their rent.
• They wanted the unpaid rent to the landlord be remitted. They joined the
radical movements, often led by the Socialists and Communists.

B) Business classes
• Keen on expanding their business, Indian merchants and industrialists
now reacted against colonial policies that restricted business activities.
• They wanted protection against imports of foreign goods, and a rupee-sterling
foreign exchange ratio that would discourage imports.
• Led by prominent industrialists like Purushottamdas Thakurdas and G.D.Birla,
the industrialists attacked colonial control over the Indian economy, and
supported the Civil Disobedience Movement when it was first launched. They
gave financial support and refused to buy imported goods.
• Most businessmen came to see swaraj as a time when colonial restrictions on
business would no longer exist and trade and industry would flourish without
any constraints.

28. State the participation of women in the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Participation of women in CDM.

• During Gandhiji’s salt march, thousands of women came out of their homes to
listen to him. They participated in protest marches, manufactured salt and
picketed foreign cloth and liquor shops. Many went to jail.
• In urban areas these women were from high-caste families. In rural areas they
came from rich peasant households.
• Moved by Gandhiji’s call, they began to see service to the nation as a sacred
duty of women.

29. How did nationalism become a reality in the minds of people? How did
people belonging to diff communities, regions or language groups develop a sense
of collective belonging?

The sense of collective belonging came partly through experience of united

struggles. But there were also a variety of cultural processes through which
nationalism captured people’s imagination.
Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24
 Devotion to the Image of Bharat Mata.
• It was in the 20th century, with the growth of nationalism, that the identity of
India came to be visually associated with the image of Bharat Mata.
• The image was first created by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. In the 1870’s
he wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ as a hymn to the motherland. Later it was included
in his novel Anandamath and widely sung during the Swadeshi movement in
Bengal.
• Moved by the Swadeshi movement, Abanindranath Tagore painted his famous
image of Bharat Mata. Devotion to this image was an evidence of one’s
nationalism.
(*How did the Image of Bharat Mata help in the growth of Indian
nationalism?)

Revival of Indian folklore

• In the late 19th century India, nationalists began recording folk tales sung by
Bards and they toured villages to gather folk songs and legends. These tales,
they believed, gave a true picture of traditional culture that had been corrupted
and damaged by outside forces.

• It was essential to preserve this folk tradition in order to discover one’s

national identity and restore a sense of pride in one’s past.
• In Bengal Rabindranath Tagore himself began collecting ballads, nursery
rhymes and myths and led the movement for folk revival. In Madras Natesa
Sastri published the folklore of southern India.

Icons and symbols.

• As the national movement developed, nationalist leaders became more and

more aware of such icons and symbols in unifying people and inspiring in them
a feeling of nationalism.
• During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolor flag (Red, Green &
Yellow) was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of
British India and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims
• By 1921 Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolor (Red,
Green & White) and had a spinning wheel in the center, representing the
Ghandhian ideal of self-help.

Reinterpretation of history
• Another feeling of creating a feeling of nationalism was through re-
interpretation of history

• By the end of the 19th century many Indians began feeling that to instill a sense
of pride in the nation; Indian history had to be thought about differently.

• They wrote about the glorious development in ancient times when art and
architecture, science and Mathematics, religion and culture, law and
philosophy, crafts and trade had flourished.

Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24

 30. How is Bharat Mata portrayed?
• In the painting Bharat Mata is portrayed as an Ascetic figure, she is calm,
composed, divine, and spiritual. In the subsequent years, the image of
Bharat Mata acquired many different forms, as it circulated in popular
prints, and was painted by different artists. Devotion to this mother figure
came to be seen as evidence of one’s nationalism

31. What does the spinning wheel identify?

• By 1921 Gandhiji had designed the Swaraj flag. It was again a tricolor (Red,
Green & White) and had a spinning wheel in the center, representing the
Gandhian ideal of self-help.

32. Why did people of different communities feel left out?

• Efforts to unify people were not without problems. When the past was being
glorified as Hindu, when the images celebrated were from Hindu iconography,
then people of different communities felt left out.

33. How did the flag unite Hindus and Muslims?

• During the Swadeshi movement in Bengal, a tricolor flag (Red, Green &
Yellow) was designed. It had eight lotuses representing eight provinces of
British India and a crescent moon, representing Hindus and Muslims.

34. How did Congress channel people’s grievances?

• The Congress under the leadership of Gandhi tries to channel people’s
grievances through organized movements for independence. Through
such movements, the nationalists tried to forge a national unity.

35. Why did the unity within the movement often break down?
• Diverse groups n classes participated in these movements with varied
aspirations and expectations.
• As their grievances were wide-ranging, freedom from colonial rule also
meant different things to different people.
• The congress continually attempted to solve differences, and ensure that the
demands of one group did not alienate the other. This is precisely y the unity
within the movement often broke down.

REFER THE TEXT BOOK

Try to learn the answers from the Text book

Grade 10-Social Science 2023-24

 MAKING OF THE GLOBAL WORLD
Q1 What is Globalisation?
• 'Globalization' is an economic system that has emerged since the last 50 years with history
- of trade, of migration, of people in search of work, the movement of capital etc.
Q2. All through history, human societies have become steadily more interlinked. Explain.
1. From ancient times, travelers, traders, priests and pilgrims travelled vast distances for
knowledge, spiritual fulfilment opportunity, or to escape persecution.
2. They carried goods, money, values, skills, ideas, inventions, and even germs and
diseases.
3. As early as 3000 BCE an active coastal trade linked the Indus valley civilizations with
present-day West Asia. For more than a millennia, cowries (the Hindi cowdi or
seashells, used as a form of currency) from the Maldives found their way to China
anEast Africa.
4. The long-distance spread of disease-carrying germs may be traced as far back as the
seventh century. By the 13th century it had become an unmistakable link.
Q3 The silk routes are a good example of vibrant pre-modern trade and cultural links
between distant parts of the world. Discuss.
1. The name ‘silk routes’ points to the importance of West-bound Chinese silk cargoes
along this route
2. Many 'silk routes’ are identified by historians over land and by sea, knitting together vast
regions of Asia, and linking Asia with Europe and northern Africa.
3. They are known to have existed since before the Christian Era and thrived almost till
the fifteenth century.
4. Chinese pottery, textiles and spices from India and Southeast Asia travelled the same
route. In return, precious metals gold and silver flowed from Europe to Asia.
5. Christian missionaries and Muslim preachers travelled this route to Asia. Much before
this, Buddhism emerged from eastern India and spread in several directions through
intersecting points on the silk routes.
Q4 How does Food offers many examples of long-distance cultural exchange.
1. Traders and travelers introduced new crops to the lands they travelled.
2. For example 'ready' foodstuff like spaghetti and noodles share common origins. It is
believed that noodles travelled west from China to become spaghetti.
3. Arab traders took pasta to fifth-century Sicily, an island now in Italy. Many of our
common foods potatoes, soya, groundnuts, maize, tomatoes, chilies, sweet potatoes, were
not known to our ancestors until about five centuries ago
4. These foods were introduced in Europe and Asia after Christopher Columbus
accidentally discovered the vast continent known as the Americas (here we will use
‘America’ to describe North America, South America and Caribbean). Many of our
common foods came from America’s original inhabitants- the American Indians.
5. Sometimes the new crops could make the difference between life and death.Europe's
poor began to eat better and live longer with the introduction of the humble potato.
6. Ireland's poorest peasants became so dependent on potatoes that when disease
destroyed the potato crop in the mid-1840s, hundreds of thousands died of
starvation.
Q 5 The pre-modern world shrank greatly in the sixteenth century. Elucidate.
1. After European sailors found a sea route to Asia and also successfully crossed the
western ocean to America.
2. Indian Ocean had known a bustling trade, with goods, people, knowledge, customs, etc.
The Indian subcontinent was central to these flows and a crucial point in their networks.
3. The entry of the Europeans helped expand or redirect some of these flows towards
Europe.
4. Before its "discovery, America had been cut off from regular contact with the rest of the
world for millions of years. But from the sixteenth century, its vast lands and abundant
crops and minerals began to transform trade and lives everywhere.
5. Precious metals, particularly silver, from mines (located in present-day Peru and
Mexico) also enhanced Europe's wealth and financed its trade with Asia.
6. Many expeditions set off in search of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold.
Q 6 Why is the Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonisation of America decisive?
OR

The most powerful weapon of the Spanish conqueror was not a conventional military
weapon at all. Justify the above statement by giving two reasons.
The Portuguese and Spanish conquest and colonization of America was under way by the
mid-sixteenth century.
 1. European conquest was not just a result of superior firepower. Instead the most
powerful weapon of the Spanish conquerors was the germs such as those of
smallpox that they carried on their person.
2. Because of their long isolation, America's original inhabitants had no immunity
against these diseases that came from Europe. Smallpox proved a deadly killer.
3. Once introduced, it spread deep into the continent, ahead even of any Europeans
reaching there. It killed and decimated whole communities, paving the way for
conquest.
Q 7 Until the nineteenth century, poverty and hunger were common in Europe.Elaborate.
1. Cities were crowded and deadly diseases were widespread.
2. Religious conflicts were common, and religious dissenters were persecuted.
Thousands therefore fled Europe for America.
3. Here, by the eighteenth century, plantations worked by slaves captured in Africa
were growing cotton and sugar for European markets.
Q 8 How did Europe emerge as a centre of world trade?
1. Until well into the eighteenth century, China and India were among the world's
richest countries.
2. However, from the fifteenth century, China is said to have restricted overseas
contacts and retreated into isolation.
3. China’s reduced role and the rising importance of the Americas gradually
moved the center of world trade westwards. Europe now emerged as the center of
world trade.

Q 8 Explain the Irish potato famine?

1. Hungry children digging for potatoes in a field that has already been harvested,
hoping to discover some leftovers.
2. During the Great Irish Potato famine (1845 to 1849), around 1,000,000 people died
of starvation in Ireland, and double the number emigrated in search of work.
 PRINT CULTURE AND THE MODERN WORLD
1. Where was the earliest Print technology developed?

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

2. Explain the technology of woodblock printing.

• Books were printed in China by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.

This was woodblock printing.

• The traditional Chinese ‘Accordion Book’ was folded and stitched at the side because
both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed.

3. Why was there a need for printed material in China?

• For a very long time, the imperial state of China was the major producer of printed
material.

• The Chinese bureaucratic system recruited its personnel through civil services
examinations.

• The imperial state-sponsored the large-scale printing of textbooks for

thisexamination.

• The number of candidates for the examinations increased from the sixteenth century, and
this increased the volume of print.
4.By the seventeenth century, the use of print diversified in China with a
blooming urban culture. Discuss.

• Print was no longer limited to scholar-officials. Merchants used to print in day-to-day

life because they collected trade-related information.

• Fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and

romantic plays became the staple for the reading public.

• Reading acquired the status of a preferred leisure activity. Rich women began to
read and many of them began publishing their poetry and plays.

• Wives of scholars published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives.
Print in Japan

5. Who brought print technology to Japan? Which was their earliest book?

OR

Describe the development of print in Japan.

• The Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into

Japan around 768 – 770 AD.

• The Buddhist Diamond Sutra which was printed in 868 AD was the oldest Japanese
book. It contained six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.

• Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards, and paper money. In medieval Japan,
poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and abundant.

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

6. How did the Printing of visual material lead to interesting publishing practices in
Japan?

• Printing of visual material led to interesting publishing practices. In the late eighteenth
century, in the flourishing urban circles at Edo (Tokyo), illustrated collections of
paintings depicted an elegant urban culture, involving artists, courtesans, and teahouse
gatherings.

• Libraries 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.

• Kitagawa Utamaro was widely known for his contributions to an art form called
ukiyo (‘pictures of the floating world’), or depiction of ordinary human experiences,
especially urban ones.

(Artists drew the theme in outline. Then a skilled woodblock carver pasted the
drawing on a woodblock and carved a printing block to reproduce the painter’s lines.
 In the process, the original drawing would be destroyed and only prints would
survive.)

Print Comes to Europe

7. Who brought print technology to Europe? How?

OR

Who was Marco Polo? What was his main contribution?

• In the eleventh century, Chinese paper reached Europe via the Silk Route. Paper
madepossible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes.
• Then, in 1295, Marco Polo, a great Italian explorer, returned to Italy after many
years of exploration in China. As you read above, China already had the technology of
woodblock printing.
• Marco Polo brought this knowledge back with him. Now Italians began producing
books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.

• Thus, printing began in Italy and travelled to other parts of Europe.

8. What is vellum?

• Vellum is a parchment made from the skin of animals.

• Vellum was still the preferred material for printing luxury editions because printed
books were considered as cheap vulgarities.

9. What happened as demands for books increased?

• Booksellers all over Europe began exporting books to many different countries.
• Book fairs were held at different places.
• Production of handwritten manuscripts was also organised in new ways to meet the
demands.
• Scribes or skilled hand writers were no longer solely employed by wealthy or influential
patrons but increasingly by booksellers as well.
• More than 50 scribes often worked for one bookseller. (Who were the scribes? Refer
last two points)

10. The handwritten manuscript could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand

for books. Discuss.

OR
Explain the factors responsible for the invention of new printing techniques.
 • The handwritten manuscripts production was not sufficient to meet the demand.
• Coping was an expensive, laborious, and time-consuming business.
• Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle, and could not be carried around or
readeasily. Therefore, their circulation remained limited.

Gutenberg and the Printing Press

11. Who brought a change in print technology? How?

• Gutenberg was the son of a merchant. Since his childhood, he had seen wine and olive
presses.

• He also learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also became
an expert in creating lead moulds. Such moulds were used for making trinkets.

• Gutenberg used his knowledge to bring innovation to print technology. He used the
olive press as the model for the printing press and used the moulds for casting the
metal types for the letters.
• Gutenberg perfected the system by 1448. The first book printed by him was the
Bible.

12. The new technology did not entirely displace the existing art of producing books by
hand. Discuss.

• Initially, the printed books resembled the written manuscripts in

appearance and layout.

• The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles.

• Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns, and illustration was
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 the painting school that would
do the illustration.

13. How did print technology spread to different parts of Europe?

• In the hundred years between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most parts
of Europe.

• Printers from Germany travelled to other countries, seeking work and helping to setup
 new presses. As the number of printing presses grew, book production boomed.
• The growth of the print industry was so good that about 20 million books appeared
in the European markets in the second half of the fifteenth century.

• In the sixteenth century, this number went up to about 200 million copies.

The Print Revolution and Its Impact

14. What is the print revolution? What was its impact?

• The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing is known as the print revolution.
• It was not just a development, a new way of producing books, it transformed the lives of
people, changing their relationship to information and knowledge and with institutions
and authorities.
• It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things.
• Books could reach out to wider sections of people. If earlier there was a hearing public,
now a reading public has come into being.

15. What were the effects of the invention of the printing press?

• With the printing press, a new reading public emerged

• Printing reduced the costs of books.
• The time and labour required to produce each book came down.
• Multiple copies could be produced with greater ease.
• Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever-growing readership. A new
culture of reading developed.

16. How did the common people learn about sacred texts before the age of print?

• Earlier reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral
culture.
• They heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited, and folk tales narrated.
• Knowledge was transferred orally. People collectively heard a story or saw a
performance.

17. How did a new reading public emerge with the printing press? Explain.
OR
How did the printing press bring a change in reading culture?

• The introduction of the printing press brought the following changes - a new culture of
reading emerged, the cost of the books came down, reduced the time and labour engaged
in publishing, produced multiple copies and the market got flooded with books.
 • Earlier, society was divided into the oral culture and reading culture. The common people
had the oral culture while only the rich people had the reading culture. The common
people heard the texts collectively which were read out, recited or narrated to them.
• The reading culture was only limited to the elites and they only read books individually
and silently. The reason behind this culture may be that books were expensive, produced
less in numbers, and the literacy rate was very low in most European countries.
• To solve the problem of illiteracy popular ballads and folk tales beautifully illustrated with
pictures were published which were sung and recited in the village gatherings and the
taverns in towns. Hence the line separating the oral culture and the reading culture started
becoming blurred.

18. How did publishers persuade the common people to welcome printed books?

• Books could reach out to wider sections of people. If earlier there was a hearing
public, now a reading public has come into being.
• Cost of the books came down, reduced the time and labour engaged in publishing,
produced multiple copies and the market got flooded with books.
• Printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales, and such books would be
profusely illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in
villages and in taverns in towns.
• Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. The
hearing public and the reading public became intermingled.

19. Why did some people fear the effects of printed books?

• Print created the possibility of the wide circulation of ideas, and introduced a new world
of debate and discussion. Through the printed message, they could persuade people to
think differently and move them to action.
• Not everyone welcomed the printed book and those who did also had fears about it. Many
were apprehensive of the effects that easier access to the printed word and the wider
circulation of books could have on people’s minds.
• It was feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read then rebellious
and irreligious thoughts might spread. If that happened the authority of ‘valuable’
literature would be destroyed.

20. How did print technology help bring about a new intellectual atmosphere in Europe
and help Martin Luther in the Reformation movement?
OR
Martin Luther remarked, “Printing is the ultimate gift of god and the greatest one.”
Explain his remarks in light of religious reforms that took place in Europe.
OR

Textbook Q1 (b) on pg 176

• In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety-Five Theses criticising
many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
• A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenburg. It challenged the
Church to debate his ideas.
• 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.
• Luther’s translation of the New Testament sold 5000 copies within a few weeks and a
second edition appeared within three months.
• Luther said, ‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one.’ Print brought
about a new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the
Reformation movement.

21. What was the 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.

22. Explain the effects of print culture in the religious sphere in early modern Europe.
• The print culture helped in the circulation of ideas, debates, and discussions. It was used
by the rebellions to let the people know the truth and take action against the established
authorities. The printed books were welcomed and also people had fear due to their
rebellious and irreligious thoughts.
• Martin Luther was a religious reformer. He wrote 95 theses in the year 1517 against the
practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Menocchio was a miller in Italy who interpreted the message of the Bible. The Roman
Catholic Church was enraged by his view of god and creation.
• The Roman Catholic Church started identifying such ideas, beliefs, and persons who
wrote against the church and thus Menocchio was hauled up twice and finally executed.
• Several restrictions were put over the publishers and the booksellers by the church and
the church ordered them to follow the Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

23. Examine the reasons for a virtual reading mania in Europe in the 18th century.
• Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries literacy rates went up in most parts of
Europe. Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy
to peasants and artisans.
• By the end of the eighteenth century, in some parts of Europe literacy rates were as high
as 60 to 80 percent. As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a
virtual reading mania.
• People wanted books to read and printers produced books in ever-increasing
numbers.
• By the mid-18th century, there was a common conviction that books were a means of
 spreading progress and enlightenment. Many believed that books could change the
world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when reason
andintellect would rule.
• New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences.
Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages, carrying little books
for sale. There were almanacs or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folktales,
penny chapbooks, newspapers and journals, etc

24. What were the new forms of popular literature that appeared in print?

• New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences.

Booksellers employed pedlars who roamed around villages, carrying little books
for sale.
a. There were almanacs or ritual calendars, along with ballads and folktales.
b. In England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars known as
Chapman and sold for a penny so that even the poor could buy them.
c. In France, were the Biliotheque Bleu, which were low-priced small books
printed on poor quality paper and bound in cheap blue colours. Then there were
romances, printed on four to six pages.
d. Newspapers and journals carried information about wars and trade, as
well as news of developments in other places.
e. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and
maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed. The writings of
thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire, and Jean Jacques Rousseau
werealso widely printed and read.

25. How did the ideas about science, reason, and rationality find their way into
popular literature?

• The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the
common people. Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and
maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed.
• When scientists like 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 Jean Jacques
Rousseau was also widely printed and read. Thus, their ideas about science, reason, and
rationality found their way into popular literature.
26. ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’
Explain the statement.

• By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that books were a
means of spreading progress and enlightenment. Many believed that books could
change the world, liberate society from despotism and tyranny, and herald a time when
reason and intellect would rule.
 • Louise-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 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!’

27. Many historians have argued that print culture created conditions within which
French Revolution occurred. To what extent did print culture create conditions
for the spread of revolutionary ideas before the French Revolution?
OR
Explain with examples the role of print culture in the bringing of the French
Revolution.
OR
Why do some historians think that print culture created the basis for the French
Revolution?
• Print popularised the ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. Collectively, their
writings provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism.
• They attacked the sacred authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state.
The writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read widely. And inspired the
revolutionaries with the ideas of freedom and equality.
• Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All values, norms and institutions
were re-evaluated and discussed by a public that had become aware of the power of
reason. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into being.
• By the 1870s, there was an outpouring of literature that mocked royalty and
criticised their morality. In the process, it raised questions about the existing social
order. This literature circulated underground and led to the growth of hostile
sentiments against the monarchy.
• There can be no doubt that print helps the spread of ideas. Print did not
directly shape their minds, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.

28. When was the first children’s printing press set up? What were its effects?

• A children’s press devoted to literature alone was set up in France in 1857.

• 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. What they collected was edited before the stories were published in a
collection in 1812.
• Anything that was considered unsuitable for children or would appear vulgar to
the elites, was not included in the published version.
• Rural folktales thus acquired a new form.
29. The nineteenth century saw vast leaps in mass literacy in Europe, bringing in
large numbers of new readers among children, women, and workers. Explain
with suitable examples.

Children
a. As primary education became compulsory in the late nineteenth century,
children became an important category of readers.
b. A children’s press, devoted to literature for children alone, was set up in
France in 1857. This press published new works as well as old fairy tales and
folk tales.
c. The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales
gathered from peasants. What they collected was edited before the stories
were published in a collection in 1812.
d. Anything that was considered unsuitable for children or would appear vulgar
to the elites, was not included in the published version. Rural folk tales thus
acquired a new form.

Women

a. Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines

were specially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour
and housekeeping.
b. When novels began to be written in the nineteenth century, women were seen
as important readers. Some of the best-known novelists were women: Jane
Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot.
c. Their writings became important in defining a new type of woman: a person
with will, strength of personality, determination and the power to think.

Workers

(What role did lending libraries play in educating the common people?)

a. Lending libraries had been in existence from the seventeenth century onwards.
In the nineteenth century, lending libraries in England became instruments for
educating white-collar workers, artisans, and lower-middle-class people.
b. Sometimes, self-educated working-class people wrote for themselves. After
the working day was gradually shortened in the mid-nineteenth century,
workers had some time for self-improvement and self-expression.
c. They wrote political tracts and autobiographies in large numbers.

30. Examine the various inventions in print technology in the 19th century and the
early 20th century.
• By the mid-nineteenth century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the
power-driven cylindrical press. This was capable of printing 8000 sheets per hour.
This press was particularly useful for printing newspapers.
• In the late 19th century, the offset press was developed which prints up to six colours
 at a time.
• From the turn of the 20th century, electrically operated presses accelerated
printing operations.
• Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, and
automatic paper reels and photoelectric controls of the colour register were
introduced.

31. Mention the methods adopted by the printers and publishers to sell
their books.

• Printers and publishers continuously developed new strategies to sell their products.
• 19th-century periodicals serialised important novels, which gave birth to a
particular way of writing novels.
• In the 1920s in England, popular works were sold in cheap series, called the Shilling
Series. The dust cover or the book jacket is also a 20th-century innovation.

32. How did the ancient Indians copy and preserve manuscripts?

• Handwritten manuscripts – in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian, as well as in various

vernacular languages.
• Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper. Pages were
sometimes beautifully illustrated.
• They would be either pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure
preservation.

33. Why were the manuscripts not widely used in daily life?

• Manuscripts were highly expensive and fragile.

• They had to be handled carefully
• They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.
So, manuscripts were not widely used in everyday life.

34. By whom and in which part of India was the first printing press set up?
OR
What was the role of missionaries in the growth of the press in India?

• The printing press first came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-
16thcentury. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed several tracts.
• By 1674, 50 books had been printed in Konkani and Kanara languages.
• Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin and in 1713 the first
Malayalam book.
• In 1710 the Dutch protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many of the
translations of older works.
35. Who was James Augustus Hickey? Why did Governor-General Warren
Hastings persecute him?
OR
The Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine described itself as ‘a commercial paper
open to all, but influenced by none.’ Explain this statement.

• James Augustus Hickey was the editor of the Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine.

• From 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly
magazine that described itself as a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by
none.’ So it was a private English enterprise, that began English printing in India.
• Hickey published a lot of advertisements, including those that related to the import
and sale of slaves. But he also published a lot of gossip about the Company’s senior
officials in India.
• Enraged by this, Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted Hickey and
encouraged the publication of officially sanctioned newspapers that could counter the
flow of information that damaged the image of the colonial government.

36. Name the first Indian newspaper. Who was the editor?
The first weekly newspaper was Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar
Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.

37. How did the religious texts encourage religious debates and discussions in India?

• Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different
ways and offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions.
• Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread new ideas, but they shaped the nature
of the debate. A wider public could now participate in these public discussions and
express their views. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.
• During the 19th century, people debated, interpreted, and criticized different religious
beliefs like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood, and idolatry. Some
people campaigned for the reform whereas others countered the arguments of the
reformers.
• In Bengal Raja Ram Mohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi. The Hindu
orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions.
• Among Hindus, too, print encouraged the reading of religious texts, especially in
the vernacular languages. The first printed edition of the Ramcharitmanas of
Tulsidas, a sixteenth-century text, came out from Calcutta in 1810.
• Religious texts therefore 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.

38. Mention the publication of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and through which did
theHindu orthodoxy opposed Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
 • Raja Ram Mohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi.
• The Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his
opinions.

39. Mention the two Persian newspapers which were published in the 19th Century.

Jam-I-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akbar.

40. Why were the ulamas deeply anxious about the collapse of the Muslim
dynasties? How did they counter the influence of their opponents?

• The ulama were deeply anxious about the collapse of the Muslim dynasties. They
feared that colonial rulers would encourage conversion and change the Muslim
personal laws.
• To counter this, they used cheap lithographic presses, published Persian and Urdu
translations of holy scriptures, and printed religious newspapers and tracts.
• 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.
• A number of Muslim sects and seminaries appeared, each with a different
interpretation of faith. Urdu print helped them conduct these battles in public.

41. Mention the first printed edition of the Hindu religious text.
The first printed edition of the Hindu religious text was the Ramcharitmanas of
Tulsidas.

42. Mention the two printing presses that published religious texts in
vernacular(regional) languages.

• Naval Kishore Press at Lucknow and

• Shri Vankateshwar Press in Bombay published numerous religious texts in
vernacular.
43. Mention the different forms of publication that developed in India.
• The novel, a literary form soon acquired distinctively Indian forms and styles. For
readers, it opened up new worlds of experience and gave a vivid sense of the
diversity of human lives.
• Other new literary forms also entered the world of reading – lyrics, short stories,
essays about social and political matters. In different ways, they reinforced the new
emphasis on human lives and intimate feelings.
• By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape.
With the setting up of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be
easily reproduced in multiple copies. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images
for mass circulation.
• Cheap prints and calendars, were easily available in the bazaar. These prints began
 shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics, and society
and culture.
• By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and
newspapers, commenting on social and political issues.

44. What did the spread of print culture in the nineteenth century India mean to:

Women and Print

• Lives and feelings of women began to be written in particularly vivid and intense
ways. Women’s reading, therefore, increased enormously in middle class homes.
Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and sent
them to schools. Many journals began carrying writings by women and explained
why women should be educated.

• Not all families were liberal. Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would
be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading
Urdu romances. In East Bengal, Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very
orthodox household, learnt to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. She wrote her
autobiography Amar Jiban, the first full length autobiography in Bengali, was
published in 1876.

• Sometimes rebel women defied such prohibitions. Eg 1: From the 1860’s a few
Bengali women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote books highlighting the experiences
of women. Eg 2: In the 1880s in present day Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde, and
Pandita Ramabai wrote with passionate anger about the miserable lives of upper-
caste Hindu women.

• In the early twentieth century, journals, journals written for and sometimes edited
by women, became extremely popular. They discussed issues like women’s
education, widowhood, and widow remarriage.

• In Punjab, folk literature was widely printed from the early twentieth century. Ram
Chaddha published the fast-selling Istri Dharm Vichar to teach women how to be
obedient wives. The Khalsa Tract Society published cheap booklets with a similar
message.

• In Bengal, an entire area in central Calcutta – the Battala – was developed to

the printing of popular books. Pedlars took the Battala publications to homes,
enabling women to read them in their leisure time.
 Print and the Poor

(What were the efforts made to spread the benefits of print culture to poor people in
the 19th century?)

• Very cheap small books were brought to markets in nineteenth-century Madras towns and
sold at crossroads, allowing poor people to travel to markets to buy them.

• Public libraries were set up in the early twentieth century, expanding access to books.
These libraries are located mostly in cities and towns, and at times in prosperous
villages.

• Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of low-caste protest movements, wrote

about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri. B.R. Ambedkar in
Maharashtra and E.V Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, better known as
Periyar, wrote powerfully on caste, and people all over India read their writings.

• Workers in factories were too overworked and lacked education. But Kashibaba, a
Kanpur millworker, wrote and published Chhote aur Bade Ka Sawal which links
caste and class exploitation. The poems of Sudarshan Chakr were broughttogether
and published in a collection called Sacchi Kavitayan.

• Libraries were set up by the millworkers of Bangalore and Bombay to educate

themselves, These were sponsored by social reformers who tried a) to restrict
excessive drinking among them, b) to bring literacy and, sometimes, c) to propagate
the message of nationalism

45. Name the British officials of India who passed the laws to give freedom
of the Press.

Governor General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws. Thomas Macaulay, a

liberal colonial official, formulated new rules that restored earlier freedoms.

46. Why did the British government in India decide to clamp on the press?

• After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed. Enraged,
Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the ‘native’ press.

• In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It
provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the
vernacular press.
 • The government kept regular track of the vernaculars the newspapers published in
different provinces. When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned
and if the warning was ignored, the press was seized and the printing machinery
confiscated.

47. How did the print culture assist the nationalist movement in India?

• Despite repressive measures, nationalist newspapers grew in numbers in all parts of

India. They reported on colonial misrule and encouraged nationalist activities.
• Attempted to throttle nationalist criticism provoked militant protest. This in turn led to a
renewed cycle of persecution and protests.
• When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote great
sympathy about them in his Kesari. This led to his imprisonment in 1908, provoking in
turnwidespread protests all over India.

48. “Printing press played a major role in shaping the Indian society of the 19th century.”
Analyse the statement.
The printing press played a major role in shaping the Indian society of the
19thcentury.
• The Portuguese missionaries brought the printing press to Goa in India in the mid-16th
century.
• During the 19th century, people debated, interpreted and criticized different religious
beliefs like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. Some
people campaigned for the reform whereas others countered the arguments of the
reformers.
• The printed materials and the newspapers spread the new ideas and also shaped the nature
of debate which gave opportunity to the people to participate in the public debates.
• Women’s reading increased among the middle class because their lives and feeling began
to be written and also the liberal husbands and fathers focused on their education.
• For the easy and affordable access of the printed books to even the poor people very cheap,
small books were published and also the public libraries were set up.

Refer the textbook