Question

What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to the poor?

Answer 1

Print culture helped the poor people significantly in the following ways:

1. Very cheap miniature books were transported to marketplaces in nineteenth-century Madras towns and sold at crossroads, allowing poor people who travelled to markets to purchase them.
2. Public libraries were set up in the early twentieth century, improving access to books. These libraries were mostly found in cities and towns, but also in wealthier villages. For wealthy local patrons, establishing a library was a way to gain a reputation.
3. Caste discrimination cases began to be publicised in the late nineteenth century. For example, Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha pioneer of ‘low caste’ protest movements, wrote about the caste system's abuses in his book Gulamgiri (1871).
4. Social reformers attempted to limit their excessive drinking in order to increase literacy and, in some cases, to promote a nationalist message.