Print Culture and the Modern World – Class 10 History Notes Made Easy (CBSE 2025)

 Class 10 History Chapter 5: Print Culture and the Modern World

It takes you on an exciting journey through the evolution of print and its powerful impact on society and culture. From revolutionizing how people read to influencing political, social, and educational reforms, print has shaped the modern world in remarkable ways.

If you're a Class 10 CBSE student preparing for the 2025–26 board exams, this chapter is not only important but can be a bit tricky to grasp. That’s why we’ve put together these easy-to-understand and exam-focused notes to help you learn faster and smarter.

These notes cover all the key concepts and topics you need to master, including:

• 📖 The invention of the printing press and its transformative role in society

• 📚 The rise of popular literature such as chapbooks, folk tales, and historical romances

• 📰 The emergence of the periodical press and how it spread new ideas

• 🧠 The impact of print on literacy, education, and the access to knowledge

• 🌍 How print facilitated the spread of scientific thought and Enlightenment philosophies

Whether you’re just beginning Chapter 5 or reviewing before exams, these notes are your perfect guide to understanding everything quickly and clearly.

Start learning now and get ready to ace your CBSE Class 10 History exam with confidence!

Subject	Social Science (History)
Class	10
Board	CBSE and State Boards
Chapter No.	5
Chapter Name	Print Culture and the Modern World
Type	Notes
Session	2024-25
Weightage	7-8 marks

Table of Contents

·      The First Printed Books

·       Print in Japan

·       Print Comes to Europe

·       Gutenberg and the Printing Press

·       The Print Revolution and Its Impact

·       A New Reading Public

·       Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

·       The Reading Mania

·       Print Culture and the French Revolution

·       The Nineteenth Century

·       Children, Women, and Workers

·       Further Innovations

·       India and the World of Print

·       Manuscripts Before the Age of Print

·       Print Comes to India

·       Religious Reform and Public Debates

·       New Forms of Publication

·       Women and Print

·       Print and the Poor People

·       Print and Censorship

The First Printed Books

• 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 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 (the art of beautiful and stylized writing).

Print in Japan

• 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, containing six sheets of text and woodcut illustrations.

Printing woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana are a Korean collection of Buddhist scriptures. They were engraved on about 80,000 woodblocks.

Kitagawa Utamaro, born in Edo in 1753, 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.

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Print Comes to Europe

• In 1295, Marco Polo, a great explorer, returned to Italy after many years of exploration in China. Marco Polo brought the knowledge of woodblock printing back with him. Now Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and soon the technology spread to other parts of Europe.
• Luxury editions were still handwritten on very expensive vellum, meant for aristocratic circles and rich monastic libraries.
• Merchants and students in the university towns bought the cheaper printed copies.

Factors responsible for the invention of new printing techniques:

• Copying was an expensive, laborious, and time-consuming business.
• The manuscripts were highly expensive, fragile, and needed careful handling.
• The handwritten manuscripts production was not sufficient to meet the demand.

Gutenberg and the Printing Press

Johannes Gutenberg developed the first mechanical printing press.

• Most of his childhood was spent on a large agricultural estate where he saw wine and olive presses. He learned to polish stones and created lead moulds.
• The olive press was the model for the printing press and the moulds were used for casting the metal types for the letters of the alphabet.

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The new technology did not entirely displace the existing art of producing books by hand:

• The metal letters imitated the ornamental handwritten styles.
• Borders were illuminated by hand with foliage and other patterns and illustrations were painted.
• There was blank space for decoration in the books printed for the rich and the design was chosen by the buyer.

The Print Revolution and Its Impact

Print Revolution:

• The shift from hand printing to mechanical printing led to the print revolution.
• It changed people’s relationship with information and knowledge and with institutions and authorities.
• It influenced people’s perceptions and opened up new ways of looking at things.

A New Reading Public

Earlier society was divided into the reading public and the hearing public. The common people had the oral culture while the rich people had the reading culture. The common people heard sacred texts read out, ballads recited and folk tales narrated.

The reading culture was only limited to the elites and they only read books individually and silently. The reasons behind this culture were:

• The books were expensive
• The books were produced in fewer numbers
• The literacy rate was low in most European countries.

To bridge the gap between these two public, printers began publishing popular ballads and folk tales, and such books were illustrated with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in towns. Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted.

Religious Debates and the Fear of Print

Not everyone welcomed the printed book. There was widespread criticism. It was feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read, then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread.

Effects of print culture in the religious sphere in early modern Europe:

The print culture helped in the circulation of ideas and introduced a new culture of debate and discussion. 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 Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 criticizing the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Menocchio, a miller in Italy, interpreted the message of the Bible and formulated a view of God and Creation that enraged the Roman Catholic Church.
• 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 also the church began to maintain an Index of Prohibited Books from 1558.

Importance of the printing press in the spread of the Protestant Reformation:

• In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety-Five Theses criticizing many of the practices of the Catholic Church.
• A printed copy of this was posted on a church door in Wittenberg.
• His writings were read and reproduced in vast numbers using the printing press.
• This print brought about a new intellectual atmosphere, which helped in the spread of new ideas. This also paved the way for the reformation of the practices of the church.
• This led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
• Print encouraged people to think reasonably and question the customs followed in the Church, which enraged the Roman Catholics.

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‘Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one'.

- Martin Luther

The Reading Mania

• As literacy and schools spread in European countries, there was a virtual reading mania.
• New forms of popular literature appeared in print, targeting new audiences.
• In England, penny chapbooks were carried by petty pedlars known as chapmen, and sold for a penny, so that even the poor could buy them.
• In France, were the “Biliotheque Bleue”, which were low-priced small books printed on poor-quality paper, and bound in cheap blue covers.
• Then there were the romances, printed on four to six pages, and the more substantial ‘histories’ which were stories about the past.
• Similarly, the ideas of scientists and philosophers now became more accessible to the common people.

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'Tremble, therefore, tyrants of the world! Tremble before the virtual writer!’

- Louise-Sebastien Mercier

Print Culture and the French Revolution

The print culture created the conditions within which the French Revolution occurred:

• Print popularized the ideas of enlightened thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau. They attacked the sacred authority of the Church and the despotic power of the state. They wanted the rule of reason, questioning, and rationality.
• Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. This resulted in the re-evaluation of the values, norms, and institutions. Within this public culture, new ideas of social revolution came into being.
• By the 1780s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticized their morality. Cartoons and caricatures typically suggested that the monarchy remained only in sensual pleasures while the common people suffered immense hardships.

The Nineteenth Century

Children, Women, and Workers

Children

• As primary education became compulsory in the late nineteenth century, children became an important category of readers.
• 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.
• The Grimm Brothers in Germany spent years compiling traditional folk tales gathered from peasants.

Women

• Women became important as readers as well as writers.
• Penny magazines were specially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behavior and housekeeping.
• Women read as well as wrote novels.
• Some of the best-known novelists were women: Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot.
• 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

The impact of the printing press on the lives of women in Europe was:

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

Further Innovations

• By the mid-nineteenth century, Richard M. Hoe of New York had perfected the power-driven cylindrical press. This was capable of printing 8,000 sheets per hour. This press was particularly useful for printing newspapers.
• In the late nineteenth century, the offset press was developed which could print up to six colors at a time.

Printers and publishers continuously developed new strategies to sell their products:

• 19th-century periodicals serialized 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 twentieth-century innovation.
• To reduce the cost of books, publishers brought out cheap paperback editions.

India and the World of Print

Manuscripts Before the Age of Print

Indian Manuscripts

• India had a rich tradition of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian as well as vernacular languages.
• Manuscripts were copied on palm leaves or on handmade paper and were sometimes beautifully illustrated.
• They were pressed between wooden covers or sewn together to ensure preservation.

Drawbacks:

• 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 used widely in daily life.

Print Comes to India

James Augustus Hickey was persecuted by Governor General Warren Hastings because he published a lot of gossip about the East India Company’s officials in India.

The first printed Indian newspaper to appear was the weekly Bengal Gazette, brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

Printed tracts and newspapers not only spread new ideas, but they shaped the nature of the debate.

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. Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi in 1821 and the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose his opinions.

In north India, the ulama 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.

New Forms of Publication

The printing press led to a new visual culture in India:

• Painters like Raja Ravi Verma produced images for mass circulation.
• Cheap prints and calendars became easily available and could be bought even by the poor to decorate their homes.
• 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.
• Some cartoons made fun of Indians blindly copying the West and criticized British rule over India while imperial caricatures made fun of Indian nationalists.

Women and Print

Print culture and its impact on women:

• Rashundari Devi, a young married girl in a very orthodox household, learned to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later she wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban which was published in 1876. It was the first full-length autobiography in Bengali.
• Many other women writers, like Kailashbhashini Debi, highlighted experiences of women like their imprisonment at home, ignorance, and unjust treatment in their writings.
• Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai narrated the plight of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows.
• Tamil writers expressed the poor status of women.
• By the early 20th century, journals written by women became popular, which highlighted issues like women's education, widowhood, and widow remarriage. Some of them highlighted fashion lessons to women and entertainment through short stories and serialized novels.

Ram Chaddha published the fast-selling Istri Dharm Vichar to teach women how to be obedient wives.

Print and the Poor People

• From the late nineteenth century, issues of caste discrimination began to be written about in many printed tracts and essays.
• Jyotiba Phule wrote about the injustices of the caste system in his Gulamgiri (1871).
• In the twentieth century, B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker in Madras, better known as Periyar, wrote powerfully on caste, and their writings were read by people all over India.
• Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote and published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal in 1938 to show the links between caste and class exploitation.

Print and Censorship

Vernacular Press Act

• In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modeled on the Irish Press Laws.
• Key provisions:

·       The government could censor reports and editorials.

·       Newspapers deemed seditious were warned. Ignoring warnings could lead to confiscation of presses and machinery.

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

When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Balgangadhar Tilak wrote with great sympathy about them in his Kesari.

Key Terms
Calligraphy	The art of beautiful and stylised writing
Vellum	A parchment made from the skin of animals
Ballad	A historical account or folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited
Almanac	An annual publication giving astronomical data, information about the movements of the sun and moon, timing of full tides and eclipses, and much else that was of importance in the everyday life of people.
Chapbook	A term used to describe pocket-size books that are sold by traveling pedlars called chapmen. These became popular from the time of the sixteenth-century print revolution.

📘 NCERT Solutions – Chapter 5: Print Culture and the Modern World

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🔹 Page 153 – Questions (Discuss)

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Q1. Give reasons for the following:

a) Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.
b) Martin Luther was in favour of print and spoke out in praise of it.
c) The Roman Catholic Church began keeping an Index of Prohibited Books from the mid-sixteenth century.
d) Gandhi said the fight for Swaraj is a fight for liberty of speech, liberty of the press, and freedom of association.

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✅ Answers:

a)
Woodblock printing came to Europe from China after Marco Polo returned from his travels in 1295. Before that, Europe lacked knowledge of this technique. His introduction of Chinese printing techniques helped spread the technology.

b)
Martin Luther strongly supported print because it helped spread his ideas against the Catholic Church. His 95 Theses, printed in large numbers, triggered the Protestant Reformation. He recognized print as a powerful tool to reach a wider audience.

c)
The Catholic Church feared the rapid spread of ideas that could challenge its authority. With the rise of printed books, people began to read independently, often questioning the Church. To counter this, it began listing prohibited books to control the spread of “heretical” content.

d)
Gandhi believed that true Swaraj (self-rule) wasn’t just about political freedom but also civil liberties. Freedom of speech, a free press, and the right to form associations were essential for a democratic society, and he fought to secure these rights under British rule.

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Q2. Write short notes to show what you know about:

a) The Gutenberg Press
b) Erasmus’s view of print
c) The vernacular press act
d) The ancient Buddhist stories preserved in the form of handwritten manuscripts

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✅ Answers:

a) The Gutenberg Press:
Johann Gutenberg developed the first printing press with movable metal type in Germany around 1448. It revolutionized the production of books, making them cheaper and more accessible.

b) Erasmus’s view of print:
Erasmus was a scholar who feared the negative effects of print. He believed too many books led to shallow thinking and that print might spread irreligious and immoral ideas.

c) The Vernacular Press Act:
Enacted in 1878 by the British, it aimed to curb the freedom of the Indian-language press. It allowed the government to censor and shut down any vernacular newspaper it considered seditious.

d) Ancient Buddhist stories:
These were preserved in handwritten manuscripts, usually on palm leaves or bark. These texts were manually copied and passed down through generations, playing a key role in preserving Buddhist teachings.

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Q3. What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth-century India mean to:

a) Women
b) The poor
c) Reformers

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✅ Answers:

a) Women:
Print culture promoted female education and awareness. Books and journals for women became common. Some women wrote about their lives (e.g., Rashsundari Devi). However, opposition to women's reading still existed in many traditional households.

b) The Poor:
Print gave the poor access to new ideas and stories through cheap booklets and folk literature. It encouraged social awareness, though literacy levels among them remained low.

c) Reformers:
Reformers used print to spread social and religious reform messages. They published newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets to campaign against social evils like caste discrimination, child marriage, and to promote widow remarriage and education.

CBSE Board standard answers for past-year questions from Class 10 History Chapter 5: Print Culture and the Modern World.

✅ 1-MARK QUESTIONS – CBSE SCORING ANSWERS
Q. Who invented the printing press? (2017)
A. Johann Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, invented the printing press with movable metal type around 1440 CE in Mainz, Germany.
Q. What was the first printed book by Gutenberg? (2015)
A. The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible, was the first major book printed using Gutenberg's press.
Q. Name the oldest printed book of Japan. (2012)
A. The Diamond Sutra, printed in 868 CE, is considered the oldest known printed book in Japan.
Q. Who were chapmen? (2013)
A. Chapmen were travelling booksellers in early modern Europe who sold short, cheap booklets known as chapbooks.
Q. Which Act was passed in 1878 to curb the freedom of the Indian press? (2020)
A. The Vernacular Press Act, 1878, was passed by the British to restrict the freedom of the regional-language press in India.

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✅ 2-MARK QUESTIONS – CBSE SCORING ANSWERS
Q. Mention any two features of handwritten manuscripts in India. (2019)
A.
They were copied by hand on palm leaves or handmade paper.
They were often fragile, expensive, and difficult to handle or transport.
Q. What was the Vernacular Press Act? Why was it passed? (2018)
A.
The Vernacular Press Act of 1878 allowed the colonial government to censor and confiscate publications in Indian languages.
It was passed to suppress criticism of British rule and curb nationalist ideas spreading through vernacular newspapers.
Q. Give two reasons why some people feared printed books. (2016)
A.
They feared that printed materials might spread rebellious or irreligious ideas.
Authorities and the Church believed it would challenge their control over people’s thoughts.

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✅ 3-MARK QUESTIONS – CBSE SCORING ANSWERS
Q. Describe any three effects of the spread of print culture on poor people in 19th-century India. (2020)
A.
Cheap printed literature and religious texts became accessible, promoting awareness and moral learning.
Public libraries were established, allowing poor people to borrow and read books.
Workers and peasants began forming associations and unions using print to voice their concerns.
Q. Explain any three reasons for opposition to printed books in early modern Europe. (2017)
A.
The Church feared the uncontrolled spread of religious reformist ideas.
Monarchs feared criticism of authority and the rise of revolution.
Traditional scholars believed that easy access to books would reduce the value of serious scholarship.
Q. Describe the role of print in the spread of religious reform movements in India. (2016)
A.
Reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy used print to promote social and religious reforms.
It helped challenge caste practices and promote women's rights.
Both Hindu and Muslim reformers used print to defend their faith and argue against colonial criticisms.

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✅ 5-MARK QUESTIONS – CBSE SCORING ANSWERS
Q. “Print not only stimulated the publication of conflicting opinions but also connected communities.” Explain. (2023)
A.
Print created a platform for the expression of diverse and opposing views, including religious, social, and political ideas.
Reformation and counter-Reformation debates were made possible through pamphlets and books.
Print encouraged social reform movements by spreading awareness about injustices.
It brought together people with similar interests across regions, creating a sense of shared identity.
The freedom struggle in India was fuelled by nationalist newspapers and pamphlets, uniting people across caste and language lines.
Q. How did the development of print culture affect women in the 19th century? (2015)
A.
Print encouraged female literacy by promoting books, journals, and magazines aimed at women.
Women began to write autobiographies and novels. Example: Rashsundari Devi’s Amar Jiban was the first autobiography written by an Indian woman.
Women reformers discussed issues like child marriage, sati, and widowhood through print.
Despite progress, some conservative families resisted women’s reading habits.
Print served as a platform for debates about women’s education and roles in society.
Q. How did the print revolution change European society and culture? (2016)
A.
Increased literacy as books became cheaper and more accessible.
Helped spread new ideas like those of the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
Played a central role in the Protestant Reformation by spreading Martin Luther’s ideas.
Promoted questioning of traditional authorities such as the Church.
Created a new reading public and stimulated intellectual debates across Europe.