About This Section
This is a collection of important questions with complete model answers covering the whole of Chapter 5 — Print Culture and the Modern World. They are grouped by marks — 1-mark, 3-mark and 5-mark — for thorough Board preparation.
1-Mark Questions
Q1. In which countries was the earliest print technology developed? Ans. China, Japan and Korea.
Q2. What is the name of the oldest printed book? Ans. The Buddhist Diamond Sutra (AD 868).
Q3. Who developed the first printing press in Europe? Ans. Johann Gutenberg (in the 1430s).
Q4. What was the first book Gutenberg printed? Ans. The Bible.
1-Mark Questions (continued)
Q5. Who wrote the Ninety Five Theses in 1517? Ans. Martin Luther.
Q6. In which year was the Vernacular Press Act passed? Ans. 1878.
Q7. Who wrote Gulamgiri (1871) about caste injustice? Ans. Jyotiba Phule.
Q8. Which newspaper did Rammohun Roy publish from 1821? Ans. The Sambad Kaumudi.
3-Mark Questions
Q9. Why did woodblock printing come to Europe only after 1295? Ans. Because it was in 1295 that the explorer Marco Polo returned to Italy from China, bringing back the knowledge of woodblock printing. Only then did Italians begin producing books with woodblocks, and the technology spread to the rest of Europe.
3-Mark Questions (continued)
Q10. Why did Martin Luther speak in praise of print? Ans. Because print spread his ideas rapidly: his Ninety Five Theses (1517) and other writings were reproduced in vast numbers, and his New Testament translation sold 5,000 copies in weeks, helping start the Reformation. Grateful, he called printing 'the ultimate gift of God'.
3-Mark Questions (continued)
Q11. Why did the Roman Catholic Church begin keeping an Index of Prohibited Books from the mid-sixteenth century? Ans. Because print allowed ordinary people to read and reinterpret religious texts in their own way (as Menocchio did), questioning the Church's authority. Troubled by this, the Church imposed controls over publishers and kept an Index of Prohibited Books to stop the spread of ideas it considered heretical.
5-Mark Questions
Q12. Why did some people fear that the easy availability of printed books could be harmful? Ans. Many feared that if there was no control over what was printed and read, then rebellious and irreligious ideas would spread, and the authority of 'valuable' literature would be destroyed. Religious authorities and monarchs feared losing control over people's minds — as when Menocchio reinterpreted the Bible and was executed, and the Church kept an Index of Prohibited Books. The scholar Erasmus too feared the flood of 'stupid, slanderous and seditious' books.
5-Mark Questions (continued)
Q13. Explain how print culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India. Ans. Print spread nationalist ideas and connected people across India, creating pan-Indian identities. Despite censorship like the Vernacular Press Act (1878), nationalist newspapers grew, reporting colonial misrule and encouraging protest — writers like Tilak (in Kesari) inspired the people. Print also gave a voice to the poor and lower castes (Phule, Ambedkar, Periyar) and to women, drawing many groups into a shared national conversation.
Q14. Describe how the print revolution created a new reading public. Ans. After Gutenberg's press, printing reduced the cost of books and produced many copies, so books flooded the market. Earlier, reading was restricted to elites in a world of oral culture; now, with illustrated ballads and folk tales that could be read aloud, the hearing public and reading public intermingled, and a new, wider reading public emerged.