India and the world of print - Concepts - Chapter 5 Class 10 History - Print Culture and the Modern World - History

MANUSCRIPTS AND THE AGE OF PRINT :-

• India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts , in multiple languages like, Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and others.
• Manuscript pages would be beautifully illustrated.
• Manuscripts were handwritten documents, mostly done on Palm leaves or the bark of trees.
• They were highly expensive and fragile.
• They could not be read easily as the script was written in different styles.

Copy of the BENGAL GAZETTE by HICKY.

PRINT COMES TO INDIA :

• First printing press came to Goa through Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16th century.
• Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed material.
• By 1674, about 50 books had been printed in Konkani and Kanara.
• First Tamil Book was printed in Cochin in 1579.
• First Malayalam book was printed in 1713.
• English language press did not develop in india till the late 17th century, till the English East India company began to import presses.
• English printing began in India from 1780.
• James Augustus Hickey began to edit the the ‘Bengal Gazette’.
• Bengal Gazette was a weekly magazine that described itself as a ‘ commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none’.
•  It was a private English enterprise free from colonial influence.
• Hickey was persecuted ( ill treated) by General Warren Hastings because he published a lot of gossip about the company’s officers in India.
• By the 18th century, there were a lot of newspapers and journals to be printed for the public.