The Rise of Nationalism in Europe

Nation (State):
A large number of people of mainly common
descent, language, history, inhabiting a territory
bounded by defined limits and forming a society
under one government is called a nation.

Frederic Sorrieu and his visualization:

In 1848, Frederic Sorrieu, a French artist, prepared
a series of four prints, visualizing his dream of a
world made up of ‘democratic and social republics’,
as he called them.

[Link] first print shows the people of Europe

and America marching in a long train, and
offering homage to the Statue of Liberty as
they pass by it. A female figure carries a
torch of enlightenment in one hand and the
Charter of the Rights of Man, in the other
hand.
[Link] the earth lies the shattered remains of
the symbols of absolutist institutions.
[Link] Sorrieu’s Utopian vision, the people of
the world are grouped as distinct nations,
identified through their flags and national
costumes.
[Link] the procession are USA and
Switzerland, followed by France and
Germany. Following Germany are Austria,
Kingdom of the two Sicilies, Lombardy,
Poland, England, Ireland, Hungary and
Russia.
[Link] the heavens above, Christ, saints and
angels gaze at the scene. The artist
 symbolizes fraternity among the nations of
the world.

The French Revolution and the idea of Nation:

[Link] of nationalism in France.

[Link] of various measures and
practices created sense of collective
identity among the people of France.
[Link] of monarchy and establishment of
republic, creation of new assembly.
[Link] of Napoleon and his reforms.
Revolutionaries help other people of Europe
to become nation.

The making of Nationalism in Europe:

 Germany, Italy and Switzerland were

divided into Kingdom, duchies and cantones
these divisions were having their
autonomous rulers.
 Uses of different languages.
 Rise of middle class.
 Industrialization in England, emergence of a
working class and liberalism.
 New conservation after 1815 and
preservation of traditional institution.
 After the defeat of Napoleon, the European
government follows the spirit of
conservatism. Conservative regimes were
autocratic Revolutionaries at that time
fought for liberty and freedom.
Example, Mazzini’s young Italy and Young
Europe.
Unification of Italy:
Giuseppe Mazzini had played an important role in
the unification of Italy. He formed a secret society
called ‘Young Italy’ in Marseilles, to spread his
goals. He believed Italy could not continue to be a
patchwork of small states and had to be forged
into a single unified republic. During 1830’s,
Mazzini sought to put together a coherent
programme for a unitary Italian Republic. As
uprisings in 1831 and 1848 had failed, the mantle
now fell on Sardinia-Piedmont under its ruler
Emmanuel II to unify Italy.

Under Chief Minister Cavour, Sardinia-Piedmont

succeeded in destroying the Austrian forces in
1859. Even Garibaldi joined the fray. In 1860, they
marched into South Italy and the kingdom of the
two Sicilies and with the help of the local peasants,
drove out the Spanish rulers. In 1861, Victor
Emmanuel II was proclaimed as King of United
Italy.

Unification of Germany:
In the 18th century, Germany was divided into a
number of states. Some of these states ceased to
exist during the Napoleonic wars. At the end of the
war, there were still 39 independent states in
Germany. Prussia was most powerful, dominated
by big landlords known as Junkers.

 Nationalist feelings were widespread

among middle class Germans who had tried
to unite the different regions of the German
 federation into a nation-state governed by
an elected Parliament.
 In May 1848, a large number of political
associations came together to vote for an
all-German National Assembly. Their
representatives met at Frankfurt and the
Frankfurt Assembly proposed the
unification of Germany as a constitutional
monarchy under the King of Prussia as
emperor
 The King of Prussia rejected the offer and
the liberal initiative of nation building was
repressed by the combined forces of the
monarchy, the military and the ‘Junkers’.
 Then on, Prussia under its Chief Minister
Otto Von Bismarck led the movement for
unification of Germany. Bismarck carried
out this process with the help of the
Prussian army and the bureaucracy. He
fought three wars over seven years with
Denmark, Austria and France. Prussia was
victorious in all these wars and the process
of unification was completed as a result of
Prussia’s victory over France.
 Consequently, on 18th January 1871, an
assembly comprising of princes of German
States, representatives of the army,
important Prussian ministers and Bismarck
gathered in the Palace of Versailles and
proclaimed the Prussian King, Kaiser
William, the new German Emperor.

Visualizing the Nation:

Marianne and Germania were both female
allegories used by artists in the 19th century to
represent the nation.

[Link] France she was named Marianne, a

popular Christian name, which underlined
the idea of a people’s nation. Her
characteristics were drawn from those of
liberty and republic—the red cap, the tri-
colour, the cockade. Statues of Marianne
were erected in public squares as a national
symbol of unity. Marianne images were
marked on coins and stamps.
[Link] of just having the idea of father
land, they wanted to implant a suitable
image in the minds of the people. They
invariably chose the mother figure
symbolizing nations—Britannia, Germania
and Marianne reminding us of our concept
of Matribhumi.
[Link] became the allegory of the
German nation. Germania wears a crown of
oak leaves as German oak stands for
heroism. It was hung from the ceiling of St.
Paul’s Church, where Frankfurt Parliament
was convened, to symbolize the liberal
revolution.

Napoleonic Code:

[Link] first major change was doing away with

all privileges based on birth, establishing
equality before law and securing the right
to property.
[Link] divisions were simplified.
 [Link] system was abolished and peasants
were freed from serfdom and manorial dues
(abuse of manorial lords).
[Link] towns, guild restrictions were removed.
[Link] and communication systems were
improved.
[Link], artisans, workers and new
businessmen enjoyed a new found freedom.
[Link] and small-scale producers of
goods in particular began to realize that
uniform laws, standardized weights and
measures and a common national currency
would facilitate the movement and
exchange of goods and capital from one
region to another.

Nationalism and Imperialism:

Last quarter of the 19th century nationalism
became a narrow creed with limited ends,
Intolerance Balkan became the sense of big power
rivalry Nationalism, aligned with imperialism cause
of World War I. Idea of a Nationalism was now
same everywhere . But concept of National State
was accepted universally.

Nationalism in India
Mahatma Gandhi and the idea of Satyagraha:
Mahatma Gandhi returned to India in 1915 from
South Africa. Gandhiji’s novel method of mass
agitation is know as ‘Satyagraha’. Satyagraha
emphasized truth. Gandhiji believed that if the
cause is true, if the struggle is against injustice,
then physical force was not necessary to fight the
oppressor. A satyagrahi can win the battle through
non-violence. People, including oppressors, had to
be persuaded to see the truth. Truth was bound to
ultimately triumph.

In India the first was at Champaran in 1916 to

inspire plantation workers to struggle against
oppressive plantation system. In 1917 Satyagraha
at Kheda to support peasants.

In 1918 Satyagraha at Ahmadabad:

Among the cotton mill workers.

‘Hind Swaraj’:
The famous book written by Mahatma Gandhi,
which emphasized non-cooperation to British rule
in India.

New economic situation created in India by the

First World War:

[Link] imports into India declined as

the British mills were busy with war
production to meet the needs of the army
paving the way for the Indian mills to
supply for the huge home market
[Link] the war prolonged, Indian factories were
called upon to supply war needs. As a result
new factories were set up, new workers
were employed and everyone was made to
work longer hrs.
[Link] production collapsed and exports of
cotton cloth from Britain fell dramatically
 after the war, as it was unable to modernize
and compete with US, Germany, Japan.
Hence within colonies like India, local
industrialists gradually consolidated their
position capturing the home market.

The Rowlatt Act of 1919:

It gave the British government enormous power to
repress political activities and allowed detention of
political prisoners without trial for two years.

Jallianwala Bagh incident:

On 13th April 1919, a crowd of villagers who had
come to attend a Baisakhi fair, gathered in the
enclosed ground of Jallianwala Bagh. Being from
outside the city, many were not aware of the
martial law that had been imposed as a repressive
measure. General Dyer with his British troops
entered the park and closed the only exit point
without giving any warning to the assembled
people and ordered the troops to fire at the
crowds, killing hundreds. This brutal act of General
Dyer provoked unparalleled indignation. As the
news of Jallianwala Bagh spread, crowds took to
the streets in many North Indian towns. There
were hartals, clashes and attacks on government
buildings.

Non-cooperation programme was adopted at

Nagpur in Dec. 1920.

Effects of the Non-cooperation Movement on the

economy of India:
Foreign goods were boycotted, liquor shops were
picketed and foreign cloth was burnt. The import
of foreign cloth halved between 1921-1922. Its
value dropped from Rs 102 crore to Rs 57 crore.
Many merchants and traders refused to trade in
foreign goods or finance foreign trade. People
began discarding imported clothes and wearing
Indian ones. The production of Indian textile mills
and hand looms went up. Use of khadi was
popularized.

Non-cooperation Movement in the countryside:

 In Awadh, the peasants’ movement led by

Baba Ramchandra was against talukdars
and landlords who demanded extremely
high rents and a variety of other ceases
from the peasants. Peasants were forced to
work in landlords’ farms without any
payment (beggar). Peasants had no
security of tenure, thus being regularly
evicted so that they could acquire no right
over the leased land. The demands of the
peasants were— reduction of revenue,
abolition of beggar and social boycott of
oppressive landlords.
 In the Gudem Hills of Andhra Pradesh a
militant guerrilla movement spread in the
early 1920s against the closure of forest
areas by the colonial government,
preventing people from entering the forests
to graze their cattle, or to collect fuel wood
and fruits. They felt that their traditional
rights were being denied.
  For plantation workers in Assam, freedom
meant the right to move freely in and out of
the confined space in which they were
enclosed. It meant retaining a link with the
village from which they had come. Under
the Inland Emigration Act of 1859,
plantation workers were not permitted to
leave tea gardens without permission. In
fact the permission was hardly granted.
When they heard of the Non-Cooperation
Movement, thousands of workers defied the
authorities and left for their homes.

Slowing down of Non-cooperation Movement in

cities:

 Khadi cloth was more expensive than mill

cloth and poor people could not afford to
buy it. As a result they could not boycott
mill cloth for too long.
 Alternative Indian institutions were not
there which could be used in place of the
British ones.
These were slow to come up.
 So students and teachers began trickling
back to government schools and lawyers
joined back work in government courts.

Khilafat movement:
Khilafat movement was started by Mahatma
Gandhi and the Ali Brothers, Muhammad Ali and
Shaukat Ali in response to the harsh treatment
given to the Caliph of Ottoman empire and the
dismemberment of the Ottoman empire by the
British.
Chauri Chaura incident:
In February 1922, Gandhiji decided to launch a no
tax movement. The police opened fire at the
people who were taking part in a demonstration,
without any provocation. The people turned violent
in their anger and attacked the police station and
set fire to it. The incident took place at Chauri
Chaura in Uttar Pradesh.

When the news reached Gandhiji, he decided to

call off the Non-cooperation movement as he felt
that it was turning violent and that the satyagrahis
were not properly trained for mass struggle.

Swaraj Party was founded by C.R. Das and Moti Lai

Nehru for return to council Politics. Simon
Commission 1928 and boycott. Lahore Congress
session and demand for Puma Swaraj in 1929.
Dandi march and the beginning of civil
Disobedience movement.
Features of Civil Disobedience Movement:

 People were now asked not only to refuse

cooperation with the British but also to
break colonial laws.
 Foreign cloth was boycotted and people
were asked to picket liquor shops.
 Peasants were asked not to pay revenue
and chaukidari taxes.
 Students, lawyers and village officials were
asked not to attend English medium
schools, colleges, courts and offices.
‘Salt March’:
On 31st January, 1930 Mahatma Gandhi sent a
letter to Viceroy Irwin stating eleven demands, one
of which was the demand to abolish Salt Tax. Salt
was one of the most essential food items
consumed by the rich and poor alike and a tax on it
was considered an oppression on the people by the
British Government. Mahatma Gandhi’s letter was
an ultimatum and if his demands were not fulfilled
by March 11, he had threatened to launch a civil
disobedience campaign. So, Mahatma Gandhi
started his famous Salt March accompanied by 78
of his trusted volunteers. The march was over 240
miles, from Gandhiji’s ashram in Sabarmati to the
Gujarati coastal town of Dandi. The volunteers
walked for 24 days, about 10 miles a day.
Thousands came to hear Mahatma Gandhi
wherever he stopped, and he told them what he
meant by Swaraj and urged them to peace-fully
defy the British. On 6th April, he reached Dandi,
and ceremonially violated the law, manufacturing
salt by boiling sea water. This marked the
beginning of the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Who participated in the movement?

Civil Disobedience Movement came into force in
various parts of the country. Gandhiji led the salt
march from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi with his
followers starting the Civil Disobedience
Movement. In the countryside, the rich Patidars of
Gujarat and Jats of Uttar Pradesh were active in
the movement. As rich communities were very hard
hit by the trade depression and falling prices, they
became enthusiastic supporters of the Civil
Disobedience Movement. Merchants and
industrialists supported the movement by giving
financial assistance and also by refusing to buy
and sell the imported goods. The industrial
working class of Nagpur region also participated in
the Civil Disobedience Movement. Railway workers,
dock workers, mineral of Chhota Nagpur, etc.
participated in protest rallies and boycott
campaigns.

Limits of the movement

less participation by untouchables—Ambedker for
separate electorate and Poona pact of 1932, Luke
warm response by some Muslim Political
Organization.

Provisions of Poona pact of 1932:

Signed between Dr. Ambedkar and Gandhiji. It
gave depressed classes reserved seats in central
provincial councils but they were to be voted by
the general electorate.

The sense of collective belonging:

Though nationalism spread through the experience
of united struggle but a variety of cultural
processes captured the imagination of Indians and
promoted a sense of collective belonging:

[Link] of figures or images: The identity of

India came to be visually associated with
the image of Bharat Mata. Devotion to the
mother figure came to be seen as an
evidence of one’s nationalism
[Link] folklore: Nationalists started
recording and using folklore’s and tales,
which they believed, gave a true picture of
traditional culture that had been corrupted
and damaged by outside forces. So
preservation of these became a way to
discover one’s national identity and restore
a sense of price in one’s past.
[Link] of icons and symbols in the form of
flags: Carrying the tricolor flag and holding
it aloft during marches became a symbol of
defiance and promoted a sense of collective
belonging.
[Link] of history: Indians began
looking into the past to rediscover the
glorious developments in ancient times in
the field of art, science, mathematics,
religion and culture, etc. This glorious time
was followed by a history of decline when
India got colonized, as Indian history was
miserably written by the colonizers.
The Making of Global World
Trade:
The activity of buying selling or exchanging goods
or services between people firms or countries.

Global inter contentedness:

As early as 3000 BCE (Before the Christian Era), an
active coastal trade linked the Indus Valley
civilization with present day West Asia. Thus,
trade, migration of people, movement of capital,
goods, ideas, inventions and many more have
helped in creating a global world in ancient times.

Christopher Columbus:
Christopher Columbus was the explorer who
discovered the vast continent of America. He took
the sea route to reach there.

First World War:

The war which broke out in 1914 engulfed almost
the entire world. The war was fought in Europe,
Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Because of the
unprecedented extent of its spread and its total
nature, it is known as the First World War.

‘Chutney music’:
‘Chutney music’, popular in Trinidad and Guyana is
a creative contemporary expression of the post-
indenture experience. It is an example of cultural
fusion between Caribbean islands and India.

Role of the ‘Silk route’:

The routes on which cargoes carried Chinese silk to
the west were known as ‘Silk routes. Historians
have discovered several silk routes over land and
by sea, covering vast regions of Asia and
connecting Asia with Europe and Northern Africa.
Even pottery from China, textile and spices from
India and South Asia also traveled the same route.
In return, precious metals like gold and silver
flowed from Europe to Asia. Culturally, Buddhism
emerged from Eastern India and spread in several
directions through the silk route.
Indentured labour is a bonded laborer under
contract to work for an employer for a specific
amount of time, to pay for his passage to a new
country or home.
Reasons why it can be described as new system of
slavery:

 Many migrants agreed to take up work to

escape poverty and oppression in their
home villages. They were cheated and were
provided false information by the agents
regarding their destination, modes of
travel, the nature of work and working
conditions.
 Often migrants were not even told that they
were to go on long sea journeys.
 The tasks allotted to them on plantations
were extremely heavy and could not be
completed in a day. They were beaten or
imprisoned.
 Deductions were made from wages if the
work was considered unsatisfactory.
 Living and working conditions were harsh
and there were few legal rights to protect
them.

Com laws:
A Com Law was first introduced in Britain in 1804,
when the landowners, who dominated Parliament,
sought to protect their profits by imposing a duty
on imported com. This led to an expansion of
British wheat farming and to high bread prices.
Effects of Abolition of Corn Laws:
This allowed the merchants in England to import
food grains from abroad at lower costs —

 It led to widespread unemployment in the

agricultural sector.
 It also resulted in the rise of a prosperous
capitalist class in the urban areas.
 Unemployment in the rural sector forced
the movement of labor from agricultural to
industrial sector.

Europeans were attracted to Africa because:

Africa had vast resources of land and minerals.
Europeans came to Africa hoping to establish
plantations and mines to produce crops ‘and
minerals which they could export to Europe. The
loss of cattle disease destroyed African livelihoods.
Planters, mine owners and colonial governments
now successfully monopolized what scare cattle
resources remained to force Africans into the labor
market. African countries were militarily weak and
backward. So they were in no position to resist
military aggression by European states.

‘Food offers many examples of long distance

cultural exchange’:

 Traders and travelers introduced food crops

to the lands they traveled. Many of our
common foods, such as potatoes, maize,
soya, groundnuts, tomatoes, chilies and
sweet potatoes came from America.
 It is believed that noodles traveled West
from China to become ‘Spaghetti’ or
 perhaps Arab traders took pasta to fifth
century Sicily (an island in Italy). Indian
‘Rotis’ have become ‘tortillas’ in Mexico,
America and western countries.
 Europe’s poor people began to eat better
and live longer with the introduction of
potato.

Economic effect of the First World War on Britain:’

[Link] finance war expenditure, Britain had

borrowed liberally from US. This meant that
at the end of the war, Britain was burdened
with huge external debts,
[Link] war had disturbed Britain’s position of
dominance in the Indian market. In India,
the nationalist movement had gathered
strength and anti-British feeling had
become stronger among common people.
Promotion of Indian industries had become
one of the objectives of the nationalist
leaders, which adversely affected industries
in Britain.
[Link] was widespread increase in
unemployment coupled with decrease in
agricultural and industrial production.
Cotton production collapsed and export of
cotton from Britain fell dramatically.
[Link] to modernize, Britain was finding it
difficult to compete with U.S., Germany and
Japan internationally.

Rinderpest (cattle plague).

An infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic
buffalo, etc.
Opium trade, the traffic that developed in the 18th
and 19th centuries in which Great Britain, exported
opium grown in India to China.

The Great Depression.

An economic situation in which most parts of the
world experienced catastrophic declines in
production, employment, incomes and trade.
Began around 1929 and lasted till the mid-1930s.

Great Depression in the US between 1929-30:

[Link] Overproduction. Falling of

agricultural prices had made it even worse.
As the prices fell, the agricultural income
declined. To meet this situation, farmers
brought larger volume of produce to the
market to maintain their small income. The
excessive supply couldn’t be sold due to
lack of buyers and farm produce rotted.
[Link] Loan Crisis. In the mid-1920s, many
countries financed their investments
through loans from the US. The overseas
lenders panicked at the first sign of trouble.
Countries that depended crucially on US
loans faced an acute crisis due to the
withdrawal of US loans. It led to the failure
of major banks and collapse of currencies.

NIEO:
Although there was unprecedented economic
growth in the West and Japan, nothing was done
about the poverty and lack of development in
countries which were earlier colonies. Thus, there
arose a need for the developing nations to
organised themselves into the G-77 group to
demand a New International Economic Order
(NIEO). NIEO meant a system that would give them
control over their own natural resources, more
development assistance, fairer prices for raw
materials and
and better access for their manufactured goods in
developed markets.

Bretton Woods Agreement:

Tire main aim of the post-war international
economic system was to preserve economic
stability and full employment in the industrial
world. A framework of the scheme was prepared.
The famous economist John Maynard Keynes
directed the preparation of the frame-work and it
was agreed upon at the United Nations Monetary
and Financial Conference held in July 1944 at
Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in USA.
According to the Bretton Woods Conference, the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World
Bank were set up. IMF was set up to deal with
external surpluses and deficits of its member
nations and the World Bank was to finance post-
war reconstruction. These two are referred to as
Bretton Woods institutions or, sometimes, ‘Bretton
Woods twins’. Decision making in these
institutions was controlled by the Western
industrial powers and the US even had Veto over
their key decisions. The post-war economic system
is often described as the Bretton Wood system.
The Age of Industrialisation
Key Concepts:

 An association of craftsmen or merchants

following same craft to protect the
members interest and supervise the
standard of the work.
 Tanning. Convert raw hide into leather by
soaking in liquid containing tannic acid.
 Food processing. Technique of chopping
and mixing food for making jam, juices, etc.
 Victorian Britain. Britain during the reign of
Queen Victoria.
 Brewery. A place where beer etc. is brewed
commercially. Brewing is a process of
infusion, boiling and fermentation.
  Vagrant. A person without a settled home
or regular work.
 Bourgeois. The upper middle class.
 Gomastha. An Indian word meaning an
agent, a middle man between the merchant
and weavers.
 Stapler. A person who staples or sorts wool
according to its fiber.

Industrialisation:
Production of goods with the help of machines in
factories. The first industrialized Nation-Britain.
Features:
Handmade goods to machine made goods in
factories, cottage to factory, large scale
production, started in England in later parts of
18th Century. In course of time, it affected all
systems of production.

Before Industrial Revolution

Proto-Industrialisation:

 Production in 17th century, artisans worked

for merchants to produce goods, artisans
took raw material from merchants for
production. Their cottages functioned as a
factory.
 Association of producers, trained craft
people maintained control over production,
restricted entry of new traders. This period
saw the coming of factories.

Coming up of factories:
  Early factories in England came up by the
1730s.
 First symbol of new era-cotton mill
 Many factories sprang up in England
 A series of inventions took place in the form
of carding, twisting, spinning and rolling.

The pace of Industrial change:

 Cotton and iron and steel industries were

the most dynamic industries.
 New industries could not displace
traditional ones.
 Technological changes occurred slowly.
 Steam engine invented by James Watt had
no buyers for years.
 New technologies were slow to be
accepted.

Hand labor and stream power:

 In Victorian Britain there was no shortage

of human labor.
 In many industries the demand for labor
was seasonal.
 Range of products could be produced only
with hand labor.
 There was a demand for intricate designs.
 Upper classes preferred things produced by
hand.

Life of the worker:

 Abundance of labor affected the life of

workers badly.
  Labour was seasonal.
 Fear of unemployment made workers
hostile to new technology.
 Women labors protested against the
introduction of the Spinning Jenny.
 Introduction of railways opened greater
opportunities.

Industrialisation in the colonies:

 Textile industry was the center of

industrialization in India.

Age of Indian textiles

 Finer varieties of cotton from India were

exported.
 A vibrant sea trade operated through pre-
colonial ports.

What happened to weavers?

 East India Company appointed “gomasthas”

to collect supply from weavers.
 Weavers lost bargaining power and lost
lands for settling loans.

Gomasthas:
The Gomasthas were paid servants whose job was
to supervise weavers, collect supplies and examine
the quality of cloth.

 The aim of the East India Company behind

appointing gomasthas was to work out a
system of management and control that
 would eliminate competition, control costs
and ensure regular supplies of cotton and
silk.
 Soon there were clashes between the
weavers and the gomasthas who began ill-
treating the weavers.
 They did not allow the company weavers to
sell their produce to other buyers. Once an
order
was placed, the weavers were given loans
to purchase the raw material. Weavers who
had accepted loans from the company had
to hand over the cloth they produced to the
gomasthas only.
 The weavers were forced to sell their goods
to company’s officials.
When the American Civil War broke out and
cotton supplies from the US were cut off,
Britain’s demand for raw cotton from India
increased.

Manchester comes to India:

 By 1950s, India began to import Manchester

cotton from Britain.
 With the rise in Manchester imports, Indian
export and local market declined.
 Supply of raw cotton in India decreased.
 Weavers were forced to buy cotton at high
prices.

Factories come up:

 Industries were set up in different regions.

 First cotton mill came in Bombay in 1854.
  The first jute mill came up in Bengal in
1855.
 1830s-1840s—Dwarakanath Tagore setup
six-joint stock companies in Bengal.
 Capital was accumulated through other
trade networks.
 Till the First World War European managing
agencies in fact controlled large sectors of
Indian industries.

Where did the workers come from?

 Most of the workers came from Indian

villages.

Peculiarities of industrial growth:

 Early Indian cotton mills made coarse

cotton yam.
 During the First World War Manchester
imports to India declined.
 Indian factories supplied goods for war
needs.

Small scale industries predominated:

 Most of the Industries were located in

Bengal and Bombay.
 A small portion of total industrial labor
worked in factories.
 Use of fly shuttle increased handicraft.

Market for goods:

Advertisements helps in creating new consumers.
 When Manchester industrialists began
selling cloth in India, they put labels on the
cloth bundles, to make the place of
manufacture and the name of the company
familiar to the buyer. When buyers saw
‘Made in Manchester’, written in bold on
the label, they felt confident to buy the
cloth.
 The labels carried images and were
beautifully illustrated with images of Indian
gods and goddesses. The printed image of
Krishna or Saraswati was also intended to
make the manufacture from a foreign land,
appear familiar to Indians.
 Manufacturers also printed calendars to
popularize their products.
 When Indian manufacturers advertised, the
nationalist message was clear and loud. If
you care for the nation,. then buy only
‘Indian’ products. Advertisements became a
vehicle of the nationalist message of
Swadeshi.
Print Culture and Modern World
Printing in the early days:
Invention of Printing Press had a very lasting effect
on the social and cultural life of man. Print initially
developed in East Asia and later developed
through Europe and India. Before the era of print
or invention of Printing Press, writing of books was
purely manual affair. Books were handwritten and
even illustrated. Calligraphy developed as an art
during that era. Calligraphy means the art of
beautiful and stylish writing.

Printed matter Chinese tradition.

Chinese were the first to have a system of
recruitment of civil service personal through open
examination. Printing remained confined to
examination materials till around the 16th century.
Trade information was circulated among the
traders through printed materials. By 19th century
mechanical printing press made its appearance in
China.

The First Printing Press was invented in 1430s by

Johann Gutenberg. Johann Gutenberg’s Bible was
the most beautiful books ever printed. Germany
took the lead in revolutionizing printing all over
Europe.

Features of handwritten manuscripts:

  They were copied on palm leaves or on
handmade papers. Pages were beautifully
illustrated.
 They were pressed between wooden covers
or sewn together to ensure preservation.
 Manuscripts were available in vernacular
languages. They were highly expensive and
fragile. They could not be read easily as
script was written in different styles. They
were not widely used in everyday life.

Woodblock method became popular in Europe:

Production of handwritten manuscripts could not
meet the ever increasing demand for books.
Copying was an expensive, laborious and time
consuming business. The manuscripts were fragile,
awkward to handle and could not be carried
around or read easily. By the early 15th century,
woodblocks started being widely used in Europe to
print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures
with simple, brief texts.

Visual culture:
In the end of 19th century a new visual culture had
started. With the increasing number of printing
presses visual images could be easily reproduced
in multiple copies. Painters like Raja Ravi Verma
produced images for mass circulation. Cheap prints
and calendars were brought even by the poor to
decorate the walls of their houses.

Print popularized the ideas of the idea of the

enlightenment thinkers:
  Collectively the writings of thinkers
provided a critical commentary on tradition,
superstition and despotism.
 Scholars and thinkers argued for the rule of
reason rather than custom and demanded
that everything to be judged through the
application of reason and rationality.
 They attacked the sacred authority of the
church and the despotic power of the state
thus eroding the legitimacy of a social order
based on tradition.
 The writing of Voltaire and Rousseau were
read widely and those who read these
books saw the world through new eyes,
eyes that were questioning critical and
rational

Development of reading mania in Europe:

A new forms of popular literature appeared to
target new readers. There were ritual calendars
along with ballads and folk tales. In England penny
chapbooks were carried by petty peddlers known
as chapmen and sold for a penny. In France these
low priced books were called Bibliotheque Bleue as
they were bound in cheap blue covers. Periodical
presses developed to combine information on
current affairs with entertainment. The idea of
scientists and scholars had now become more
accessible to the common people.

Impact of print on Indian women:

Writers started writing about the lives of women
and this increased the number of women readers.
Women writers began to write their own
autobiographies. They highlighted the condition of
women, their ignorance and how they were forced
to do hard domestic labor. A large section of Hindu
writing was devoted to the education of women. In
the early 20th century the journals written by
women became very popular in which women’s
education, widowhood, widow remarriage were
discussed.

Print culture created the conditions within which

the French Revolution:
The print popularized the ideas of the enlightened
thinkers who attacked the authority of the church
and the despotic power of the state. The print
created a new culture of dialogue and debate and
the public become aware of reasoning. They
recognized the need to question the existing ideas
and beliefs. The literature of 1780s mocked the
royalty and criticized their morality and the
existing social order.

India and Print Culture:

Print culture came to India with the coming of
Portuguese missionaries. Konkani was the first
Indian language in which books were printed. The
first Tamil book printed was printed in 1579 and
Malayalam book in 1713. English printing in India
commenced with the publication of Bengal Gazette
in 1780. Printed tracts played a very significant
role in the spread of social reform movement in
India.

The Vernacular Press Act:

 In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was
passed by the British Government to
impose restrictions on vernacular press,
which was responsible for spreading
nationalist ideas.
 The government started to keep a regular
track of the vernacular newspapers and had
extensive rights to censor reports and
editorials in the vernacular press.
 When a report was judged as seditious, the
newspaper was warned, and if the warning
was ignored, the press was liable to be
seized and the printing machinery
confiscated.