CBSE Class 10 · Print Culture and the Modern World

Print Comes to India Class 10: Manuscripts to Newspapers

Updated 14 October 2026 · Fact-checked

Print came to India with Portuguese missionaries in Goa in the mid-sixteenth century. Before that, costly handwritten manuscripts were used. From 1780 Hickey's Bengal Gazette began English printing, and Indians soon published their own papers. In the nineteenth century print carried religious reform debates and brought novels, pictures and new readers among women and the poor.

Notice how India moves from handwritten manuscripts to the Goa press, first Tamil and Malayalam books, and finally the 1780 English newspaper.

Illustration drawn for QuestionBuddy.

Understand Print Comes to India

1. Manuscripts before print (Section 6.1). India had a rich, old tradition of handwritten manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and many vernacular languages. They were copied on palm leaves or handmade paper, sometimes beautifully illustrated, and pressed between wooden covers or sewn together for safety. They were produced even after print arrived, down to the late nineteenth century. But they were very expensive and fragile, had to be handled carefully, and were hard to read because scripts were written in different styles, so they were not widely used in everyday life. Pre-colonial Bengal had many village primary schools, yet students often did not read texts: teachers dictated from memory and students wrote it down, so many became literate without ever reading. Figures: Gita Govinda of Jayadeva (eighteenth-century palm-leaf manuscript in accordion format), Diwan of Hafiz (1824), and a Rigveda manuscript in Malayalam script (eighteenth century).

2. The first presses (Section 6.2).

The printing press came first to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-sixteenth century. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed tracts; by 1674 about 50 books had appeared in Konkani and Kanara languages.
Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin and the first Malayalam book in 1713. By 1710 Dutch Protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many translations of older works.
The English language press grew late, although the East India Company imported presses from the late seventeenth century. (Source C: as late as 1768 William Bolts put up a notice in Calcutta regretting the lack of a press there; he soon left for England and nothing came of it.)
From 1780 James Augustus Hickey edited the Bengal Gazette, a weekly calling itself 'a commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none'. So English printing in India began as private enterprise, proud of its independence. Hickey printed advertisements, including some about the import and sale of slaves, and gossip about the Company's senior officials. Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted him and encouraged officially approved newspapers to counter damaging news.
The first Indian newspaper was the weekly Bengal Gazette of Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.

3. Religious reform and public debates (Section 7). From the early nineteenth century, groups argued in print over widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry. Printed tracts and newspapers spread new ideas, shaped the debate and let a wider public take part, often in the everyday spoken language.

Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821; the Hindu orthodoxy commissioned the Samachar Chandrika to oppose him. From 1822 came two Persian papers, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar, and the Gujarati Bombay Samachar.
In north India the ulama, anxious about the collapse of Muslim dynasties and fearing conversion and changes to Muslim personal laws, used cheap lithographic presses for Persian and Urdu translations of scriptures and religious papers. The Deoband Seminary (1867) published thousands of fatwas guiding everyday conduct.
Among Hindus, the first printed Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out from Calcutta in 1810; from the 1880s the Naval Kishore Press (Lucknow) and Shri Venkateshwar Press (Bombay) printed vernacular religious texts that could be read anywhere or read aloud to the unlettered.
Print also connected communities: newspapers carried news across regions and helped create pan-Indian identities.

4. New forms of publication (Section 8). Readers wanted their own lives reflected in print, so the novel took Indian forms, along with lyrics, short stories and essays. By the late nineteenth century a visual culture grew: Raja Ravi Varma made images for mass circulation, poor wood engravers worked for print shops, and cheap prints and calendars decorated even poor homes. From the 1870s caricatures and cartoons commented on society and politics.

5. Women and print (8.1). Women's reading grew in middle-class homes; journals carried women's writings and reading material for home schooling. Conservative families resisted, but some women defied them: Rashsundari Debi learnt to read secretly in her kitchen and wrote Amar Jiban (1876), the first full-length autobiography in Bengali. From the 1860s Kailashbashini Debi, and in the 1880s Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai, wrote about the harsh lives of women, especially upper-caste widows. Hindi printing began seriously only from the 1870s. In Punjab, Ram Chaddha's Istri Dharm Vichar taught women to be obedient wives. Calcutta's Battala printed cheap popular books, which pedlars carried to women at home.

6. Print and the poor (8.2). Cheap small books were sold at crossroads in Madras towns, and public libraries spread from the early twentieth century. Jyotiba Phule wrote Gulamgiri (1871) on caste injustice; later B.R. Ambedkar and Periyar (E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker) wrote on caste. Kanpur millworker Kashibaba published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938) on caste and class exploitation, and another, writing as Sudarshan Chakr, wrote poems collected as Sacchi Kavitayan. By the 1930s Bangalore millworkers set up libraries, following Bombay workers.

Print Comes to India: key facts

Manuscripts: features and limits: Material palm leaves or handmade paper
Look illustrated, wooden covers or sewn
Limits expensive, fragile, scripts hard to read
Made till late 19th century; Answer for 'manuscripts before print'.
First presses: Mid-16th century Goa, Portuguese missionaries
1579 first Tamil book (Cochin)
By 1674 ~50 Konkani and Kanara books
By 1710 32 Tamil texts by Dutch Protestants
1713 first Malayalam book; Chronology MCQs.
English press: 1780: Hickey's Bengal Gazette, 'open to all, but influenced by none'; persecuted by Warren Hastings; Private enterprise began English printing.
First Indian newspaper: Weekly Bengal Gazette of Gangadhar Bhattacharya, close to Rammohun Roy; Do not mix with Hickey's paper.
Reform debates in print: Sambad Kaumudi (Rammohun Roy, 1821) vs Samachar Chandrika (orthodoxy); 1822: Jam-i-Jahan Nama, Shamsul Akhbar (Persian), Bombay Samachar (Gujarati); Issues: widow immolation, monotheism, priesthood, idolatry.
Religious print: Deoband Seminary 1867 fatwas; Ramcharitmanas printed Calcutta 1810; Naval Kishore Press (Lucknow), Shri Venkateshwar Press (Bombay) from 1880s; Print spread faith and debate.
Women writers: Rashsundari Debi, Amar Jiban 1876; Kailashbashini Debi (1860s); Tarabai Shinde, Pandita Ramabai (1880s); Match-the-following MCQs.
Print and caste: Phule, Gulamgiri 1871; Ambedkar; Periyar; Kashibaba, Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal 1938; Sudarshan Chakr, Sacchi Kavitayan; Print and the poor.

Material	palm leaves or handmade paper
Look	illustrated, wooden covers or sewn
Limits	expensive, fragile, scripts hard to read
Made till	late 19th century

Mid-16th century	Goa, Portuguese missionaries
1579	first Tamil book (Cochin)
By 1674	~50 Konkani and Kanara books
By 1710	32 Tamil texts by Dutch Protestants
1713	first Malayalam book

How to answer Print Comes to India questions

This topic is examined through match-the-following and chronology MCQs, 3-mark explanations (reform debates, women, the poor) and source passages. Precise names with dates earn the marks.

1Note the period the question asks about: before print, first presses, nineteenth-century debates, or new readers.
2For 'manuscripts', give both features (materials, illustration, binding) and limits (cost, fragility, scripts).
3For the first presses, keep Goa, Cochin, Hickey and Bhattacharya in order with dates.
4For religious reform, show both sides of a debate (Sambad Kaumudi against Samachar Chandrika) and name one Muslim and one Hindu example.
5For women or the poor, pair each person with a work and date (Rashsundari Debi, Amar Jiban, 1876; Phule, Gulamgiri, 1871).
6End 3- and 5-mark answers with the effect: wider participation, new ideas, pan-Indian identities.

Print Comes to India in real life

The idea, met in an everyday situation. Answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Print lets both sides of a debate reach the public

Suppose two groups in a town disagree about changing an old local custom. One group starts a weekly newsletter supporting change; the other quickly starts its own newsletter to defend the custom. Soon people across the town are reading both and arguing at tea stalls.

Compare this imagined situation with the religious reform debates in nineteenth-century Bengal.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Identify the pattern: a reform paper is answered by an opposing paper.
Link to Bengal: Rammohun Roy's Sambad Kaumudi (1821) was opposed by the Samachar Chandrika, commissioned by the Hindu orthodoxy.
Identify the result: a wider public joins the discussion.
Link to the text: printed tracts and newspapers spread ideas, shaped the debate and let more people express views.

Answer: In the imagined town, as in Bengal, print gave both sides a voice. Rammohun Roy argued for reform in the Sambad Kaumudi from 1821, and the orthodoxy replied through the Samachar Chandrika. Because these were printed in everyday language, a wider public read them and joined in, and new ideas emerged from the clash of opinions.

Memory hook: One paper argues, another answers, and the public decides.

Tricks to remember Print Comes to India

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

Goa, Cochin, Calcutta
Print travelled from Goa (Konkani) to Cochin (Tamil 1579) to Calcutta (Hickey 1780): west coast, south, then east.
Use it when: Chronology questions.
Two Bengal Gazettes
Hickey's was English and first (1780); Gangadhar's was the first by an Indian. H before G.
Use it when: MCQs on the first newspaper.
SK vs SC
Sambad Kaumudi for Kranti (reform); Samachar Chandrika for Conservatives.
Use it when: Reform debate MCQs.
R-A-76
Rashsundari wrote Amar Jiban in 1876.
Use it when: Women and print MCQs.

Print Comes to India: solved examples

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Try each one before you open the solution.

Example 1: Match writers and works · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

Which one of the following pairs is correctly matched?
(a) Jyotiba Phule: Amar Jiban
(b) Rashsundari Debi: Gulamgiri
(c) Rammohun Roy: Sambad Kaumudi
(d) Kashibaba: Samachar Chandrika

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Phule wrote Gulamgiri, Rashsundari Debi wrote Amar Jiban, Kashibaba wrote Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal; Rammohun Roy published the Sambad Kaumudi (1 mark).

Answer: (c) Rammohun Roy: Sambad Kaumudi

Example 2: Manuscripts before print (3 marks) · 3 marks · Short answerBoard level

Describe the features of manuscripts in India before the age of print and explain why they were not widely used in everyday life. (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Written in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and vernaculars on palm leaves or handmade paper, sometimes illustrated, kept between wooden covers or sewn together (1 mark).
They were highly expensive and fragile and had to be handled carefully (1 mark).
Scripts were written in different styles and could not be read easily, so manuscripts stayed out of everyday use (1 mark).

Answer: Manuscripts were written in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and vernacular languages on palm leaves or handmade paper, sometimes illustrated, and kept between wooden covers or sewn together. But they were costly and fragile, needed careful handling, and were hard to read because scripts were written in varied styles, so they were not used widely in daily life.

Example 3: Print and religious reform (3 marks) · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level

Analyse how print shaped religious reform and debate in nineteenth-century India. (3 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Debates on widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry were carried on in print; Rammohun Roy's Sambad Kaumudi (1821) was countered by the orthodox Samachar Chandrika (1 mark).
The ulama used cheap lithographic presses for Urdu and Persian scriptures; the Deoband Seminary (1867) published thousands of fatwas (1 mark).
Printed in everyday language, these spread ideas to a wider public, shaped the debate and also linked communities across India (1 mark).

Answer: Reformers and the orthodoxy argued in print over widow immolation, idolatry and priesthood: Rammohun Roy's Sambad Kaumudi (1821) was answered by the Samachar Chandrika. The ulama used cheap lithographic presses for Urdu translations, and Deoband issued thousands of fatwas. Printed in everyday language, these drew a wider public into debate and linked communities across India.

Example 4: Assertion-reason: Hickey's paper · 1 mark · Assertion-reasonHarder board level

Assertion (A): Warren Hastings persecuted James Augustus Hickey.
Reason (R): Hickey's Bengal Gazette published gossip about the Company's senior officials in India.
(a) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.
(b) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A.
(c) A is true, but R is false.
(d) A is false, but R is true.

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Hastings was enraged by the gossip about senior officials and persecuted Hickey; R explains A (1 mark).

Answer: (a) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A.

Example 5: Source: Bolts' notice in Calcutta · 4 marks · Source-basedHOTS / competency

Read the source and answer the questions.

Source C (NCERT, in summary): In 1768 a man named William Bolts put up a notice on a public building in Calcutta. He told the public that the lack of a printing press in the city was a great disadvantage to business, and promised to give the best encouragement to anyone skilled in printing. Bolts, however, soon left for England and nothing came of his promise.

(i) What problem did Bolts point out in his notice? (1)
(ii) What happened to his plan? (1)
(iii) What does this source suggest about the growth of the English language press in India, and when did English printing finally begin? (2)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

(i) Calcutta had no printing press, which was a great disadvantage for business (1 mark).
(ii) Bolts left for England soon after, and nothing came of it (1 mark).
(iii) The English press grew very late, even though the East India Company had imported presses from the late seventeenth century (1 mark).
(iii) English printing began through private enterprise in 1780, when Hickey started the Bengal Gazette (1 mark).

Answer: (i) There was no printing press in Calcutta, which hurt business. (ii) He left for England soon after and nothing came of his plan. (iii) The English language press developed late in India, even though the Company had imported presses since the late seventeenth century. English printing began only in 1780, through the private enterprise of James Augustus Hickey's Bengal Gazette.

Example 6: Print and women (5 marks) · 5 marks · Long answerHarder board level

Evaluate the impact of print on the lives of women in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century India. Include both the opportunities print created and the resistance it met. (5 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Women's lives and feelings were written about vividly, so women's reading grew in middle-class homes; liberal men educated women at home and sent them to new schools (1 mark).
Journals carried women's writings, argued for their education and gave syllabuses for home schooling; women's journals discussed education, widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement (1 mark).
Resistance: conservative Hindus believed a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared Urdu romances would corrupt women; some print, like Istri Dharm Vichar, taught obedience (1 mark).
Defiance: Rashsundari Debi learnt to read secretly and wrote Amar Jiban (1876), the first full-length Bengali autobiography (1 mark).
Women's voices: Kailashbashini Debi from the 1860s and Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai in the 1880s wrote about women's confinement and the misery of widows (1 mark).

Answer: Print brought women's lives into literature, so reading grew in middle-class homes, and liberal husbands and fathers educated women at home or in new girls' schools. Journals printed women's writings, argued for their education and supplied lessons; later, women's journals discussed widowhood, widow remarriage and the national movement. Resistance remained: conservative Hindus feared a literate girl would be widowed, Muslims feared Urdu romances, and books like Istri Dharm Vichar taught obedience. Yet women defied this. Rashsundari Debi learnt to read secretly and wrote Amar Jiban (1876), the first full-length Bengali autobiography. Kailashbashini Debi, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote angrily about women's confinement and widows' suffering.

Example 7: Print and caste (2 marks) · 2 marks · Very short answerHarder board level

How did print help to raise questions of caste discrimination? Give two examples. (2 marks)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

Jyotiba Phule wrote about the injustices of the caste system in Gulamgiri (1871) (1 mark).
Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938) linking caste and class exploitation; Ambedkar and Periyar's writings were read across India (1 mark).

Answer: Jyotiba Phule exposed the injustices of caste in Gulamgiri (1871). Later, Kanpur millworker Kashibaba published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938) on caste and class exploitation, and the writings of Ambedkar and Periyar were read all over India.

Where students lose marks in Print Comes to India

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

Mistake: Confusing the two Bengal Gazettes
Same name, different founders.
Wrong working
Gangadhar Bhattacharya started the Bengal Gazette in 1780.
Right working
Hickey's Bengal Gazette began in 1780; Gangadhar Bhattacharya's weekly Bengal Gazette was the first Indian newspaper.
Do this: H (Hickey) before G (Gangadhar).
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Saying the British brought print to India
Students assume the colonial power came first.
Wrong working
The East India Company brought the first press to Calcutta.
Right working
Portuguese missionaries brought it to Goa in the mid-sixteenth century.
Do this: Goa first.
Usually costs: 1 mark.
Mistake: Mismatching writers and works
Many names in Section 8.
Wrong working
Tarabai Shinde wrote Amar Jiban.
Right working
Rashsundari Debi wrote Amar Jiban (1876); Phule wrote Gulamgiri (1871).
Do this: Learn the formula sheet pairs.
Usually costs: 1 mark per MCQ.
Mistake: One-sided answers on reform debates
Only reformers are mentioned.
Wrong working
Rammohun Roy used print to spread reform.
Right working
Reformers and the orthodoxy both used print: Sambad Kaumudi against Samachar Chandrika.
Do this: Show both sides of the debate.
Usually costs: 1 mark in 3-mark answers.

Exam tips

Make a date line: mid-1500s Goa, 1579 Tamil, 1713 Malayalam, 1780 Hickey, 1810 Ramcharitmanas, 1821 Sambad Kaumudi, 1867 Deoband, 1871 Gulamgiri, 1876 Amar Jiban.
Match-the-following questions are mostly about writers and works; revise the formula sheet pairs.
For 3-mark 'impact' questions, end with a result such as wider public debate or pan-Indian identities.
Use NCERT Sources C and D (Bolts' notice, 'Why Newspapers?') for source practice.

Practice questions on Print Comes to India

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

Q1 · 1 mark · MCQHarder board level
Arrange in chronological order: I. Hickey begins the Bengal Gazette II. First Tamil book printed at Cochin III. Rammohun Roy starts the Sambad Kaumudi IV. Amar Jiban is published
(a) II, I, III, IV
(b) I, II, III, IV
(c) II, III, I, IV
(d) I, III, II, IV
Hint
1579, 1780, 1821, 1876.
Answer
(a) II, I, III, IV
Q2 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Who brought the printing press to India, and where did it first arrive? (1 mark)
(a) British traders, Calcutta
(b) Portuguese missionaries, Goa
(c) Dutch Protestants, Cochin
(d) Jesuit priests, Madras
Hint
Mid-sixteenth century, west coast.
Answer
(b) Portuguese missionaries, Goa
Q3 · 3 marks · Short answerHarder board level
Explain how print helped poor people gain access to books and ideas in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century India. (3 marks)
Hint
Cheap books, libraries, workers' writing.
Answer
Very cheap small books were sold at crossroads in Madras towns, so poor people going to markets could buy them. Public libraries spread from the early twentieth century, mostly in towns. Workers began to read and write too: Kashibaba published Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938), and by the 1930s Bangalore millworkers set up libraries, following Bombay workers.
Q4 · 3 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency
Suppose a student claims that print only divided Indians, because each religious group used it to attack others. Evaluate this claim. (3 marks)
Hint
Debates within and among religions, but also news across regions.
Answer
Partly true: print stimulated conflicting opinions, as reformers and orthodoxy, and Muslim sects and seminaries, fought their battles in print. But print also connected people: newspapers carried news from one place to another and created pan-Indian identities, and religious texts reached wide circles, encouraging discussion. So print both divided and united.
Q5 · 2 marks · Very short answerHarder board level
How did Raja Ravi Varma and cheap prints contribute to a new visual culture by the end of the nineteenth century? (2 marks)
Hint
Mass reproduction; who could buy?
Answer
More printing presses meant images could be reproduced in many copies. Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation, and cheap prints and calendars sold in bazaars let even the poor decorate homes and workplaces, shaping popular ideas about religion, politics and society.
Q6 · 2 marks · Very short answerHOTS / competency
Why did many students in pre-colonial Bengal become literate without reading texts? (2 marks)
Hint
What did teachers do in the village schools?
Answer
In the village primary schools, teachers dictated portions of texts from memory and students only wrote them down. So students learnt to write, and became literate, without actually reading books, which were scarce and costly manuscripts.
Q7 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level
Which of the following was published by the Hindu orthodoxy to oppose Rammohun Roy's opinions?
(a) Bombay Samachar
(b) Jam-i-Jahan Nama
(c) Samachar Chandrika
(d) Shamsul Akhbar
Hint
It was commissioned specifically to counter the Sambad Kaumudi.
Answer
(c) Samachar Chandrika

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1.Where was the first Tamil book printed, and when?Show answer
Cochin, 1579.
2.What did the Bengal Gazette call itself?Show answer
'A commercial paper open to all, but influenced by none'.
3.Who persecuted Hickey?Show answer
Governor-General Warren Hastings.
4.When was the Deoband Seminary founded?Show answer
1867.
5.Who wrote Gulamgiri?Show answer
Jyotiba Phule, in 1871.
6.What was the Battala?Show answer
An area in central Calcutta devoted to printing cheap popular books.

Print Comes to India: frequently asked questions

When did print come to India?

In the mid-sixteenth century, when Portuguese missionaries brought the printing press to Goa.

Who started the first newspaper in India?

James Augustus Hickey began the Bengal Gazette in 1780. The first Indian-run paper was the weekly Bengal Gazette of Gangadhar Bhattacharya.

How did print affect women in India?

Women's reading and education grew, journals carried their writings, and women like Rashsundari Debi, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote about their lives, though conservative families resisted.

How did print help religious reform in India?

Reformers and their opponents argued in printed tracts and newspapers in everyday language, so a wider public joined debates on widow immolation, idolatry and other issues.