We have provided you with Extra and Important Questions from Class 10 Social Science History Chapter 5 Print Culture and the Modern World. This Extra and Important Questions will help you to score 100% in your Board Exams. These extra questions will be helpful to revise the important topics and concepts.

Print Culture and the Modern World Class 10 Important Questions with Answers History Chapter 5

Extra Questions for Class 10 History Chapter 5 Very Short Answer Type

Question: Name the countries where the earliest kind of print technology was developed.

Answer: (i) China (ii) Japan (iii) Korea

Question: What is calligraphy?

Answer: The art of beautiful and stylish writing is known as calligraphy.

Question: Who was the major producer of printed material in China For what purpose this material was used?

Answer: The Imperial Slate in China was the major producer of printed material. The textbooks were used by the students appearing for service examination.

Question: When and by whom was hand printing technology introduced in Japan (CBSE 2014)

Answer: Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand printing technology inter Japan around AD 768 -770

Question: Which is the oldest book to be printed in Japan

Answer: The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 565. is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing Six sheets of text end woodcut illustrations.

Question: Which material was used to print pictures in Japan?

Answer: Playing cards, textiles and paper money was used to print pictures.

Question: Who were scribes?

Answer: Scribes were skilled persons who used to write manuscript for the publishers.

Question: Who developed the first printing press?

Answer: Johann Guttenberg of Germany-1430.10. Name the first book published by Johann Guttenbcrg.Answer: Bible.

Question: What were ballads (CBSE 2014)

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

Question: What is manuscript?

Answer: Manuscript is a handwritten material.

Question: Why manuscripts were not widely used in everyday life?

Answer: Manuscripts were highly expensive and fragile. They had to be handled carefully, and they could not be read easily. So manuscripts were not widely used in everyday life.

Question: Who started publishing Sambad Kaumudi from 1821?

Answer: RajaRam Mohan Roy.

Question: Who was Martin Luther?

Answer: He was a protestant reformer who favoured printing.

Question: What was Protestant Reformation?

Answer: It was a 16th century movement to reform the Catholic Church dominated by Rome.

Question: What were Biliotheque Blue?

Answer: These are low priced small books printed in France. These were printed on poor quality- paper and bound in cheap blue covers.

Extra Questions for Class 10 History Chapter 5 Short Answer Type

Question: How did a new reading culture bloom in China Explain.

Answer: (i) With the blooming of urban culture, the uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar-officials.

(ii) Merchants also started using print in their everyday life, to collect trade information Reading increasingly became a leisure activity.

(iii) The readers preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces and romantic plays.

(iv) Rich women began to read a great variety of books and many women began to publish their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works, and courtesans started writing about their lives.

Question: Describe the progress of print in Japan. [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2011. 2013]

Answer: (i) Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand-printing technology into Japan around AD 768-770. The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra. Pictures were printed on textiles, playing cards and paper money.

(ii) In medieval Japan, poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and abundant.

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

Question: ‘The shift from handprinting to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.’ Explain.

Answer: (i) In the hundred years between 1450 and 1550. the printing presses were set up in most of the countries of Europe.

(ii) Printers from Germany travelled to other countries, seeking work and helping to start new presses. As the number of printing presses grew, book production boomed.

(iii) The second half of the fifteenth century saw around 20 million copies of printed books flooding the markets in Europe. The number went up in the sixteenth century to about 200 million copies.

(iv) It influenced popular perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things

Question: “There was a virtual reading mania in European countries in the 18th century”. Explain the factors responsible for this virtual reading mania.

Answer: (i) Low cost of production : With the printing press, a new reading public emerged. Printing reduced the cost of books. The time mid labour required to produce each book came down, and multiple copies could be produced with greater ease. Books flooded the market, reaching out to an ever-growing readership.

(ii) Accessibility of books : Access to books created a new culture of reading. Earlier, reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral culture They heard sacred texts read out ,ballads recited, and folk tales narrated Knowledge was transferred orally. People collectively heard a story, or saw a performance. Before the age of print, books were not only expensive but they could not be produced in sufficient numbers. Now books could reach out to wider sections of people.

(iii) Increase in literacy rate : Through the. seventeenth and eighteenth centuries literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe. Churches of different denominations set up schools in Villages, carrying literacy to peasants and artisans. By the end of the eighteenth century, in some parts of Europe literacy rates were as high as 60 to 80 per cent. As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading mania.

Question: Explain the common conviction of people in the mid-18th century about the books and print culture, [CBSE 2013]

Answer: (i) By the mid-eighteenth century, there was a common conviction that books were a means of spreading progress and enlightenment.

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

(iii) Louise-sebastian Mercier, a novelist in Prance declared. “The printing press is most powerful engine of progress and public- opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.”

Question: How did ideas about science, reason and rationality find their way into popular literature in the 18th century Europe [CBSE Sept. 2010]

Answer: (i) Collectively, the writings of thinkers provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism.

(ii)Scholars and thinkers argued for the rule of reason rather than custom, and demanded that everything be judged through the application of reason and rationality,

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

(iv) The Writings of Voltaire and Rousseau were read widely and those who read these books saw the world through new eyes, eyes that were questioning, critical and rational.

Question: How did the ideas of scientists and philosophers become more accessible to common people after the beginning of print revolution in Europe [CBSE Sept. 2010. 2012]

Answer: (i) The ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common people.

(ii) Ancient and medieval scientific texts were compiled and published, and maps and scientific diagrams were widely printed.

(iii) When scientists like Isaac Newton began to publish their discoveries, they could influence n much wider circle of scientifically minded readers.

(iv) The writings of thinkers such as Thomas Paine. Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau were also widely printed and read. Thus their ideas about science, reasoning and nationality found their way into popular literature.

Question: ‘Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world ! Tremble before the virtual writer ! Explain this statement. [CBSE 2014]

Answer: Louise-Sebastien Mercier was a French dramatist and a novelist in the eighteenth century. He declared “The printing press a the most powerful engine of progress and public opinion is the force that will sweep despotism away.’ In most of his novels, he had shown his love for reading. In most of his novels, the heroes are transformed by the acts of reading Convinced of the power of print in bringing enlightenment, and destroying the basis of despotism, Mercier proclaimed : “Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world ! Tremble before the virtual writer !”

Question: “The Bengal Gazette was a commercial paper open to all. but influenced by none.” Justify the claim of James Augustus Hickey. [CBSE 2012]

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

Question: From the early 19th century, there were intense debates around the religious issues. Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread the new ideas, but they shaped the nature of debate also. Explain by giving examples.

Answer: (i) Different groups confronted the changes happening within colonial society in different ways, and offered a variety of new interpretations of the beliefs of different religions. A wider public could now participate in these public discussions and express their views. New ideas emerged through these clashes of opinions.

(ii) This was a time of intense controversies between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. In Bengal, as the debate developed, tracts and newspapers proliferated, circulating a variety of arguments. To reach a wider audience, the ideas were printed in the everyday, spoken language of ordinary people.

(iii) Raja Ram Mohan Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions. From 1822, two Persian newspapers were published, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar.

Question: Explain the steps which were taken by the British government or the colonial government to control the freedom of press.

Answer: (i) Earlier measures : Before 1798, the colonial state under the East India Company was not too concerned with censorship. Strangely, its early measures to control printed matter were directed against Englishmen in India who were critical of Company misrule and hated the actions of particular Company officers. The Company was worried that such criticisms might be used by its critics in England to attack its trade monopoly in India.

(ii) Regulations of Calcutta Supreme Court: By the 1820s, the Calcutta Supreme Court passed certain regulations to control press freedom and the Company began encouraging publication of newspapers that would celebrate Brtish rule. In 1835, faced with urgent petitions by editors of English and vernacular newspapers, Governor- General Bentinck agreed to revise press laws. Thomas Macaulay, a liberal colonial official, formulated new rules that restored the earlier freedoms.

(iii) Vernacular Press Act : After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed. Enraged Englishmen demanded a clamp down on the ‘native’ press. In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modelled on the Irish Press Laws. It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press. From now on the government kept regular track of the vernacular newspapers published in different provinces. When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned, and if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery confiscated.

Extra Questions for Class 10 History Chapter 5 Long Answer Type

Question: ‘ The imperial state in China, was the major producer of printed material.’ Support this statement. [CBSE 2014]

Answer: (i) Hand Printing : The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea. This was a system of hand printing. From AD 594 onwards, books in China were printed by rubbing paper – also invented there- against the inked surface of woodblocks. As both sides of the thin, porous sheet could not be printed, the traditional Chinese ‘accordion book’ was folded and stitched at the side. Superbly skilled craftsmen could duplicate, with remarkable accuracy, the beauty of calligraphy.

(ii) Major producer : The imperial state in China was, for a very long time, the major producer of printed material. China possessed a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state. From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of print.

(iii) Printing in the 17th century : By the seventeenth century, as urban culture bloomed in China, the uses of print diversified. Print was no longer used just by scholar officials. Merchants used print in their everyday life, as they collected trade information. Reading increasingly became a leisure activity. The new readership preferred fictional narratives, poetry, autobiographies, anthologies of literary masterpieces, and romantic plays. Rich women began to read, and many women began publishing their poetry and plays. Wives of scholar-officials published their works and courtesans wrote about their lives.

(iv) Printing in the 19th century : This new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology. Western printing techniques and mechanical presses were imported in the fate nineteenth century as Western powers established their outposts in China. Shanghai became the hub of the new print culture, catering to the Western-style schools. From hand printing there was now a gradual shift to mechanical printing.

Question: Mention some of the important characteristics of print culture of Japan.

Answer: (i) Introduced by the Buddhist missionaries : The Buddhist missionaries from China introduced the handprinting technology into Japan around AD 768-770.

(ii) Old book : The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra, containing six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.

(iii) Material: Playing cards, paper money and textile products were used for printing pictures.

(iv) Cheap books : In the medieval Japan, the works of poets and prose writers were regularly published, and books were cheap and abundant.

(v) Print in Edo (Tokyo) : In the late 18th century, in the flourishing urban circles at Edo (later to be known as Tokyo), illustrated collections of paintings depicting an elegant urban culture, involving artists, courtesans and teahouse gatherings.

Question: How did print come to Europe from China Explain. [CBSE Sept. 2010, 2011]

Answer: (i) Paper from China : Paper reached Europe from China through the Silk route in the 11th century. With this, the production of manuscripts written by scribes became a regular feature.

(ii) Role of travellers and explorers : Marco Polo, a great explorer reached Italy after several years of exploration in China in the year 1295. Marco Polo brought back with him the technology of woodblock printing. Now Italians started publishing books with woodblocks. The technology became popular in other parts of Europe, as well.

(iii) Woodblock printing : By the early fifteenth century, woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures with simple, brief texts.

(iv) Johann Gutenberg and the printing press : A major revolution in the print technology was brought by Johann Gutenberg. He developed the first known printing press in the 1430’s. The first book he printed was the Bible.

(v) Spread of printing presses : In the next hundred years i.e. between 1450 and 1550, printing presses were set up in most countries of Europe.

Question: Who invented the printing press How did he develop the print technology [CBSE 2009 (F)]

Answer: Johann Gutenberg was a German goldsmith and inventor, credited with the inventing of the movable type printing in Europe. Gutenberg was the son of a merchant, and his childhood was spent on a large agricultural estate. From his childhood, he had seen wine and olive presses. By and by, he learnt the art of polishing stones, became a master goldsmith, and also acquired the expertise to create lead moulds used for making trinkets. (Trinket-A small item of jewellery that is cheap or of low quality). Using this knowledge, Gutenberg adapted the existing technology to design his innovation. The olive press became the base model for the printing press and moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet. By 1448, Gutenberg perfected the system. In 1455, Gutenberg published his 42-lines Bible, commonly known as the Gutenberg Bible. About 180 copies were printed most on paper and some on vellum.

Question: Highlight any three innovations which have improved the printing technology from 19th century onwards.[CBSE 2014]

Answer: Invention which improved the printing technology after 17th century are listed below :

(i) Metal Press : In the 19th century, there were a series of innovations in the printing technology. Now the press was made out of metal.

(ii) Rotary Printing Press : Richard March Hoe, an American inventor designed and improved the printing press. He invented the Rotary Printing Press, a design much faster than the old flat-bed printing press. The new press could print* about 8,000 sheets per hour. The new press was very useful for printing newspapers.

(iii) Offset Press : In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six colours at the same time.

(iv) Electrically Operated Presses : From the turn of the twentieth century, electrically operated presses accelerated printing operations. A series of many other developments followed. Methods of feeding paper improved, the quality of plates became better, automatic paper reels and photoelectric control of the colour register were introduced. The accumulation of several individual mechanical improvements transformed the appearance of the printed texts.

Question: “Oral culture and print culture were complimentary to each other”. Justify the statement with any three suitable arguments. [CBSE 2013]

Answer: (i) Earlier, reading was restricted to the elites. Common people lived in a world of oral culture.

(ii) With the printing press, books could reach out to wider sections of society. If earlier, there was a hearing public, now a reading public came into being.

(iii) Publishers had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed books. Even those who did not read, could enjoy listening to the books being read out.

(iv) So, 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.