Class 10 Print Culture and Modern World Important Questions

Very Short Type Questions – 

Q.1: - What is calligraphy? 
Ans:- The art of stylish writing.
Q.2.: - What was Gutenberg’s first printed book?
Ans:- Bible
Q.3: -What were ‘Penny Chapbooks’?
Ans:- Pocket – sized books
Q.4: - Who introduced the printing press in India-
Ans:- Portuguese
Q.5: - Who wrote ‘My childhood My university’.
Ans:- Maxim Gorky
Q.6: - When was the Vernacular press act passed?
Ans:- 1878
Q.7: - Who said, “Printing is the ultimate gift of god and the greatest one.”
Ans:-  Martin Luther
Q.8: - Which is the oldest printed book of Japan
Ans:- Diamond Sutra
Q.9: - Who wrote 95 theses?
Ans:- Martin Luther
Q.10:- Who authored ‘Gitagovinda’?
Ans:- Jayadeva

Short Answers Type Questions

Q.1: - Explain any three features of handwritten manuscripts before the age of print in India?
Ans.:- 
1. They were copied on palm leaves or on handmade papers.
2. Pages were beautifully illustrated.
3. They were pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.
4. Manuscripts were available in vernacular languages.
5. Highly expensive & fragile.
6. They could not be read easily as script was written in different styles.
7. They were not widely used in everyday life.

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

Q.3: - What was the role of new ‘visual image’ culture in printing in India?
Ans.:- 
1. In the end of 19th century a new visual culture had started.
2. With the increasing number of printing presses visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.
3. Painters like ‘Raja Ravi Verma’ produced images for mass circulation.
4. Cheap prints and calendars were brought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their houses.

Q.4: - “Print popularized the ideas of the idea of the enlightenment thinkers.” Explain.
Ans.:- 
1. Collectively the writings of thinkers provided a critical commentary on tradition, superstition and despotism.
2. Scholars and thinkers argued for the rule of reason rather than custom and demanded that
everything to be judged through the application of reason and rationality.
3. They attacked the sacred authority of the church and the despotic power of the state thus eroding
the legitimacy of a social order based on tradition.
4. The writing 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.

Long Answer type Questions

Q.1: - How print revolution led to the development of reading mania in Europe.
Ans.:-As literacy and schools spread in European countries there was a virtual reading mania.
1. A new forms of popular literature appeared to target new readers
2. There were ritual calendars along with ballads and folk tales.
3. In England penny chapbooks were carried by petty peddlers known as chapmen and sold for a
penny, So that even poor could buy them.
4. In France these law priced books were called Bibliotheque Bleue as they were bound in cheap blue
covers.
5. There were romances, histories, books of various sixes, serving developed to combine information
on current affairs with entertainment.
6. Periodical pressed developed to combine information on current affairs with entertainment.
7. The idea of scientists and scholars had now become more accessible to the common people.

Q.2: - How did oral culture enter print and how was the printed material transmitted orally? Explain
Ans.:-
Oral culture entered print into the following ways –
1. Printers published popular ballads and folktales.
2. Books were profusely illustrated with pictures. Printed material was transmitted orally in the
following ways.
  I. These were sung at gathering in villages, taverns and in towns.
  II. They were recited in public gathering.

Q.3: - Explain the impact of print on Indian women.
Ans.:- 
1. Writers started writing about the lives and features of women and this increased the number of
women readers.
2. Women writers write their own autobiography. They highlighted the condition of women, their
ignorance and how they forced to do hard domestic labour.
3. A large section of Hindu writing was devoted to the education of women.
4. In the early 20th century the journals written by women become very popular in which women’s
education, widowhood, widow remarriage were discussed.
5. Many writers published how to teach women to be obedient wives.

Q.4: - By the end of the 19th century a new visual cultural was taking shapes. Write any three features 
of this new visual cultural.
Ans.:-
1. Visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.
2. Printers produced images for mass circulation cheap prints and calendars could be brought even by
the poor.
3. By the 1870’s caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and news papers.
4. Mass production of cost and visual images reduced the cost of production. So cheap prints and
calendars were available in the market even for the poor to decorate the walls of their homes.

Q.5: - ‘Many Histories have argued that print culture created the conditions within which the French 
Revolution occurred.’ Explain.
Ans.:-
1. The print popularized the ideas of the enlightened thinkers who attacked
the authority of the church and the despotic power of the state.
2. The print created a new culture of dialogue and debate and the public
become aware of reasoning. They recognized the need to question the
existing ideas and beliefs.
3. The literature of 1780’s mocked the royalty and criticized their morality
and the existing social order. This literature led to the growth of hostile
sentiments against.