AI-generated practice question — model-generated for extra practice, not a previous-year CBSE board question.
China/Japan: Print in China initially served the imperial state — textbooks for civil service examinations were mass-produced. By the seventeenth century, urban culture changed print's role: merchants, women, and leisure readers all began using print. Key social change: Women began reading and publishing poetry and plays, marking a shift in their social role.
Early Modern Europe: Gutenberg's press triggered a print revolution that transformed the relationship between people, knowledge, and authority. Books became cheap and widely available, spreading new ideas rapidly. Key social change: Martin Luther's Protestant ideas spread through print, challenging the Roman Catholic Church's authority and sparking religious reformation.
Nineteenth-Century India: Print enabled social reform movements and nationalist ideas to reach wider audiences. Reformers used print to debate issues like widow remarriage and caste oppression. Key social change: Women and the poor gained access to new knowledge, and literacy became a tool of social emancipation and nationalist mobilisation.
Source: Chapter 5 — Print Culture and the Modern World
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