What did the spread of print culture in nineteenth century India mean to: (a) Women (b) The poor (c) Reformers.

(a) The spread of print culture in 19th century India benefited

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.