In the questions given below, there are two statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Read the statements and choose the correct option:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Asertion (A).
b. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true, but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
c. Assertion (A) is true, but Reason (R) is false.
d. Assertion (A) is false, but Reason (R) is true.
1. Assertion (A): It is easy for us to imagine a world without printed matter.
Reason (R): We find evidence of print everywhere around us in books, journals, newspapers, prints of famous paintings, and also in everyday life in things like theatre programmes, official circulars, calendars, etc.
Answer:
d. Assertion (A) is false and Reason (R) is true.
Explanation:
It is difficult to imagine a world without print because printed materials are present everywhere in our daily lives.
2. Assertion (A): Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1395.
Reason (R): Marco Polo brought with him the technology of woodblock printing.
Answer:
c. Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true.
Explanation:
Woodblock printing reached Europe after 1295, not 1395. Marco Polo is believed to have brought knowledge of this technology from China.
3. Assertion (A): Gutenberg’s press was too slow as compared to present press technology.
Reason (R): It could print 180 copies of Bible in three years.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Compared to modern machines, Gutenberg’s press was slow and labour-intensive. Printing 180 copies of the Bible took around three years.
4. Assertion (A): Cheap paperback editions of books were printed by the end of the eighteenth century.
Reason (R): It became easy for poor people to buy them.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Cheap paperback books reduced the cost of reading materials and made books affordable for poorer sections of society.
5. Assertion (A): India had a very rich and old tradition of handwritten manuscripts.
Reason (R): Manuscripts were copied on banana leaves or on handmade paper.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Indian manuscripts were carefully copied by hand on materials such as palm leaves, banana leaves and handmade paper.
6. Assertion (A): Women were not educated in India in the early part of the nineteenth century.
Reason (R): Conservative Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims feared that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Social and religious beliefs discouraged women’s education in the nineteenth century.
7. Assertion (A): Some people in 18th century Europe thought that print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism.
Reason (R): The ideas of scientists and philosophers became more accessible to the common people after the coming of print culture.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Print culture spread new ideas and knowledge widely, encouraging people to question traditional authority and despotism.
8. Assertion (A): Women became important readers as well as writers.
Reason (R): Penny magazines were especially meant for women as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Special magazines and educational materials encouraged women to read and later become writers as well.
9. Assertion (A): In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety Five Theses criticising many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church.
Reason (R): This led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Martin Luther’s criticisms challenged the authority of the Catholic Church and led to the Protestant Reformation.
10. Assertion (A): The new reading culture was accompanied by a new technology.
Reason (R): From hand printing there was a gradual shift to mechanical printing.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
The growth of reading culture became possible because printing technology shifted from manual copying to mechanical printing.
11. Assertion (A): The production of handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books.
Reason (R): Chinese paper reached Europe via the silk route.
Answer:
b. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Handwritten manuscripts were slow and expensive to produce. The arrival of Chinese paper in Europe is unrelated to the increasing demand for books.
12. Assertion (A): The first book that Gutenberg printed was the Bible.
Reason (R): About 500 copies were printed and it took two years to produce them.
Answer:
c. Assertion (A) is true but Reason (R) is false.
Explanation:
Gutenberg’s first major printed book was the Bible, but around 180 copies were produced, not 500.
13. Assertion (A): Print and popular religious literature stimulated many distinctive individual interpretations of faith even among little-educated working people.
Reason (R): Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, literacy rates went up in most parts of Europe.
Answer:
b. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Religious literature encouraged personal interpretations of faith. Rising literacy helped reading culture grow but does not directly explain individual interpretations.
14. Assertion (A): As literacy and schools spread in African countries, there was a virtual reading mania.
Reason (R): Churches of different denominations set up schools in villages, carrying literacy to tribals.
Answer:
d. Assertion (A) is false but Reason (R) is true.
Explanation:
The reading mania occurred in nineteenth-century Europe, not African countries. Missionary schools did help spread literacy among tribal groups.
15. Assertion (A): Children became an important category of readers.
Reason (R): Primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century.
Answer:
a. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true and Reason (R) is the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
Compulsory primary education increased literacy among children and created a growing market for children’s books.
16. Assertion (A): There was intense controversy between social and religious reformers and the Hindu orthodoxy over matters like widow immolation, monotheism, Brahmanical priesthood and idolatry.
Reason (R): The Deoband Seminary founded in 1867, published thousands upon thousands of fatwas telling Muslim readers how to conduct themselves in everyday lives, and explaining the meaning of Islamic doctrines.
Answer:
b. Both Assertion (A) and Reason (R) are true but Reason (R) is not the correct explanation of Assertion (A).
Explanation:
The debates among Hindu reformers concerned social and religious practices. The Deoband Seminary’s publications were related to Islamic reforms and not the direct reason for these Hindu controversies.