Question 3: What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to:
a) Women
b) The poor
c) Reformers
Answer:
(a) The spread of print culture in 19th century India benefitted Indian women through learning and education. The liberal families supported the education of women to study or read as they believed education and reading would make the women corrupt. This led to the counter reaction, as most of the oppressed women began to study and read books and learnt writing in secrecy. Some literate women started to write books and their autobiographies. Rashasundari Devi, a young married girl wrote her autobiography “Amar Jiban” which was published in 1876. Overall, the print culture in 19th century India helped in spread of the feeling of self-reliance among Indian women.
(b) The poor people benefitted from the spread of print culture because of the availability of books at a low price. The readership among them increased due to the publication of low priced books. Public libraries were also set up from the early 19th century, expanding the access to the books where all people could gain knowledge. Encouraged and inspired by the social reformers, the people like factory workers too set up their libraries and some even wrote books. Kashibaba, a Kanpur mill worker wrote and published ‘Chote aur Bade Ka Sawal’.
(c) Indian reforms of 19th century utilized print culture as the most potent means of spreading their reformist ideas and highlight the unethical issues. They began publishing various vernacular and English and Hindi newspapers and books through which they could spread their opinions against widow immolation, child marriage, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry to the
common people of the country. In this way the spread of print culture in the 19th century provided
them a space for attacking religious orthodoxy and to spread modern social and political ideas to the people of different languages across the country.
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