Print and India

The 9^th September 2015, in Barath’s Sir class of ‘ History and Growth of Journalism ‘, we touched on the advent of print in India. With the coming of print India became much more modern or to put in other words, colonial modernity. Modernity came into these main presidencies, namely Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. In Calcutta, it lead to the modern English education whereas Bombay and Madras had a dissent with the INC ( Indian National Congress ) which mainly comprise of North Indians. In religion terms, Christianity was considered a much more modern religion compared to the religion followed by the majority of Indians, i.e Hinduism. In Calcutta presidency people were not much in favour of the missionaries and also conversion, hence resulting in the coming up of a number of reformers, one such reformer was Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Whereas in the other two Presidencies, Bombay and Madras, the conversion of people from Hinduism to Christianity was  much more simpler due to various reasons, the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese had already established themselves in Bombay presidency resulting in the rise of numbers of Indian converting to Christians. In the southern peninsula ( Madras presidency }, the Hindu believers of Shiva and the Hindu believers of Vishnu had always fought among themselves which led to many problems and taking the lives of each other, this is also one of the main reason which lead to a majority of the people to convert into Christianity. Certain kind of challenges by the whites also led to the conversion of Christianity in Inida.

Many prominent personalities in India during the time when print first came to India had different views on Nationalism, for example, Tagore’s take on Nationalism was western modernity whereas Gandhi’s opinions were against modernity. Gandhi mix religion with politics, whereas the likes of Tagore, Nehru and Jinnah were Secular, but talking about secularism, we have to keep in mind that secularism in India is totally different from secularism in the rest of the world.

With the advancement of print in India, the British had to bring some kind of control to administer the smooth operation of print. The 1^st print ordinance which comprises of various Do’s and Dont’s and various rules and regulations was implemented, what was implemented in London was also implemented in India. We can safely assume the dissent between the 3 presidencies since all of them were vying for power, led to the protest for the implementation of the 1^st press ordinance. The 2^nd ordinance was implemented at the beginning of the 20^th century which involves more clauses, this again led to various problems for patriotic writers, these so called ‘ patriotic writers ‘ would take refuge in Pondicherry which was not a colony of the British.

                                                                                            - Fabian Thangkhiew 

History of Print in India

When the British first arrived in Calcutta in the late 18^th century, they were mainly merchants and the British East India Company was setup. In the early 19^th century, when the East India Company was settled and their trade well established, they began to fight against other western trade companies from Portugal, France and Netherlands. The local rulers who were already weak from continuous conflicts began seeking help from the western trade companies whose armed forces were used only to guard the goods. The East India Company and other trade companies started supporting the local rulers, this lead to many battles. At the end The British East India Company emerged victorious and hence had control of trade in the major parts of India and this lead to the Colonization of the Indian Subcontinent.

The coming of the East India Company and later the British rule, the idea of modernity was changed to western technology such as Print, western religion of Christianity, for the Northeastern Parts of India who don’t have a written script, the British provided the script and later the idea of modernity lead to the formation of a Nation. The Missionaries who came widely used printing to produce many Bibles and thus started converting the natives. The British also widely documented the history of India thoroughly this gave them the power of knowledge and thus take the observations to better themselves.

The Presidency states like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay greatly developed when the British came. Calcutta was the first state where the British introduced English Education which gave the people in Bengal a great advantage as the British always take them along with them. The Bengal Gazette which was published in January 29, 1780 was the first newspaper to be published in India, it gave the Indians inspiration to write their own newspaper. In Madras and Bombay, Regional language became very popular and flourished as they used the printing technology brought by the British to promote their dialect as the locals were able to print newspapers in their own language thus increasing the growth of their language.

Print brought the idea of Nationality and National language, it was widely used by the Indian freedom Fighters to spread the spark of freedom and it was the last outcome of the British introduced Print in India. Towards the 20^th century, there were many Indian newspapers which are opting for a free India as more and more leaders propagated their Ideas of freedom using newspapers.

Thus we see the influence of Print in the Indian subcontinent it shapes, spreads and inspires people. It shaped the educational institutes and made it available to all. Christianity was spread to almost all the parts of the country and in the very end it Inspired Indians to strife for a free country for the freedom of expression. Till this day Print media plays an important role in our everyday lives.

                                                                                                              - Damechwa L. Mawnai

Imagined communities

Before print , manu scripts was resisted to the church and the ruling class, but with the coming of print media , it applied to the people with the common language and create a nation of the same communities, thus forming imagined communities with something abstract , this factors which influence could also be the race , language, caste, religion believe , cultures etc

       He also speak on the influence of the western intellectual. 

1) Annals school: French historians, Instead of studying simple people history they studies deep structure history (geographical history)

2)Walter Benjamin: The replicability in print as in ability in which printed materials can be replicate as many times we need .

3) Luben Febure : In his book ' The coming of book ' describes the access of knowledge is available only to the church and the ruling class with the advanced of printing knowledge become availability more 

freely.      

   Imagined communities of Benedict Anderson talk about how the coming of print led to the idea of race which cause communal genocide which in turns cause the feeling of nationality . simultaneously the race of the people made maps and documents,memory and history through meseums.     He also talk about the idea of nations / state, nations has more social exist such as literature , history culture and so on where as a state has real , more geographical area( maps) it also has a functional economy and thus they trades ,with  other nation / state . Nations / state is formed by cultural , geographical and political territorial .

 The more dominated race or caste over power the lesser one and commit cultural genocide . the nation/ state has a strong military presence and huge bureaucracy . But in the 20th century nations / state is basically cooperative , it has control above human resources . Nations / state is a kind of readjusting in India . All nation/state work for the betterment of all .                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                    - Article by Albert

Habermas ‘Public Sphere’

Today’s class started with the recap of what we had learned so far – Print revolution, printing press, Bible, French revolution and the role of print during the revolution.

During the revolution, people gathered in public areas like coffee houses to read out pamphlets or newspapers to empower them and those who can’t read with the spirit of statesmanship and revolution. This act gave the people a platform to come together and discuss the important issues of the state be it religious or political. These acts/ platform spread awareness among the people belonging to the working class. 

In Habermas ‘Public Sphere’ a society consists of the public domain and the individual who are codependent as to say, has an important role in the society. The public domain like churches, government offices, hospitals or even prison are functioned or run by the individuals who may be an individual or a family. All these exert power in a society. Michel Foucault, a 19^th century philosopher, studied the relationship of knowledge, culture and society and how power is consumed or exerted in a society.

The media are the gatekeepers but with digital technology the people have become the producers and consumers wherein we can easily have access to information which we can easily have accessed to with digital technology. But as Neil Postman points out for every advantage technology provides there is always a corresponding disadvantage.

                                                                                               Article by Beautymorn Synnah

Guillotine

The day was rather challenging, considering the weekend that we travelled through; drained off energy and dampened by the weather, our spirits were hibernating as pointed out by Bharat Sir.

                Socialism, Capitalism, Communism, Bourgeois or Proletariat nothing seemed to work, not even Retail Therapy of the Capitalist, the class was equally divided, liberally day dreaming and off course the fraternity was not even remotely covalent. History was moving back and forth; AD, BC, BE,… all appeared to be jumbled alphabets and no one had a clue which jigsaw to which puzzle , at one point it did becoming un-nerving as though an imminent  revolution was brooding  parallel to the topic at hand, French Revolution. Phew!!! Seemed like we were in the wrong era in this time travel..! Hold on there is always a silver lining and the sun did shine at the end.

Aboriginals, their struggle, the Jews, Nazi propaganda, modern illusions of MNC’s and the Man eaters of Sundarbans unravelled themselves clad in different attires and this time, the coin was in the reverse, “Unless a lion starts to write you will only hear and learn a glorified history of hunters.” So was the case for the afore mentioned topics and we did get a different picture of the lions version from Bharat Sir. To conclude, as he said, Print has the power and one with power becomes powerful, however it’s up to us to be Orators and thinkers or to adjust ‘WB and hold Tri-pods.’  

                                                                                          - article by Shekhar Das

  

EVOLUTION OF MEDIA

The Nascent Paradigm

With the advent of technology, we probably didn’t foresee the supersonic speed of transition from print to digital.

From the equality principles of Marxism to the communism spirit of Cuba and China to atheism leading to the debate between genesis and evolution, today’s class discussion went off on a tangent covering different spheres of relative studies keeping intact the context -The evolution of media. 

Barath Sir spoke about a non-fiction book by Jared Diamond, Gems, Germs, and Steel. This book outlines a theory that civilization is not created out of superior intelligence but is the result of a chain of developments, each made possible by certain preconditions. Similarly, one can trace back the evolution of media as a result of the ones that came before it. For eg: He talks about frames (consecutive images displayed by a device) in a video which could be traced back indirectly to the working mechanism of a flip-book to a certain extent. Also, how video showcases linkage to photography.

Barath Sir recollects a point made by a student about the distraction caused by ads while reading an article on the internet. He points out how stories in the internet today with short videos and gifs. are similar to the newspapers (containing moving images) of the Harry Potter movie series. He also gave an insight about how earlier people regarded technology as a hindrance to religion and ironically, in the present era, how technology controls religion.

Considering the vastness of this topic, there wasn’t any formal conclusion made to it although the examples and the relative citations enhanced a deeper understanding of evolution and new media.    

                                                                                                                         - article by Vivek Das

The Phantom Itch 

Click on this link for the talk delivered by Neil Postman in Denver Colorado March 28, 1998 on the 

Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change*

Today’s discussion was based on an essay by Neil Postman called Five Things We Need to Know About Technological Change*. These five things were expressed as ideas starting with the idea that technology comes with a price. Barath cited examples such as how the telegraph killed the idea of space; how with the arrival of automobiles also brought along with them pollution; the decline of manners among most people who use cellphones (he’s asked us to look up the meaning of a P2P Call) and local shopkeepers who lose out on business because of e-retailers.

The second idea also speaks along similar lines in that there are advantages as well as disadvantages to technology. For instance, the idea of a Smart Classroom – a concept which Barath said he would never put to practice. He went to the board and drew what I erroneously thought at the time looked like an alien grasshopper’s head but others guessed correctly as being a set of kidneys. This was to demonstrate how such drawings on a board, and the simultaneous explanation of them by the teacher, were how students used to learn about the human anatomy. However, nowadays we have colourful diagrams of the same presented to us in the form of PowerPoint presentations and these distract from what the teacher is actually trying to explain.

The third idea is about how technology dictates certain prejudices in us as a culture. For instance, Barath gave us the example of how we would look at a person who would come to class carrying a typewriter as someone who was more than a little odd; but we would not judge someone in such a way if they were carrying one of Samsung’s latest phones which when you think about it, are quite large. Barath has also asked us to watch the film The Lives of Other People in relation to this matter.

The fourth idea speaks about how technology does not adapt to an environment; rather, it actually causes changes in the environment in which it exists. Barath cited the example of when a drop of red dye (technology) may be dropped into water (environment). In the end, it is the water which is altered by the drop of dye. Similarly, it was with the arrival of television that our perception of certain incidents change. Some issues are turned from mole hills into mountains, thus inciting cultural violence. It becomes difficult to take a stance on any issue when it comes to television. Because of its reach to millions, there will always be someone, or some group of people, that will take offence.

The fifth and last idea speaks about how we have evolved into accepting the intrusiveness of new technology and viewing it as an extension of ourselves without really questioning its consequences. However, there are consequences and with the arrival of new technology, there has also arisen the need to protect ourselves from it. For instance, there is the need in most people to always have their phone with them, to the point that even if they don’t, some have instances where they think they can hear their phone ringing.

In the end, Postman warns that we must be careful that we “use technology rather than be used by it.”

*Please get your copy of this reading from Beautymorn. 

                                                                                                  - Article by Aimesha Kurbah