Question

How far is it right to say that the print culture was responsible for the French Revolution ?
OR
"Indian novelists in the 19th century wrote for a national cause." Justify the statement with examples.

CBSE Class X Social Science LA (5 Marks)

Answer 1

(i) Print popularized the ideas of enlightened thinkers on traditions, superstitions and despotism.

(ii) They advocated reasons.

 (iii) People read books of Voltaire and Rousseau. Print created dialogue and debate.

 (iv) People started discussion and evaluated the royalty.

(v) Print literature mocked the royalty.

 (vi) These kind of print literature circulated underground and it created awareness among people and formed the basis of French Revolution.

 

 OR

(i) In Bengal many historical novels were about Marathas and Rajputs which produced a sense of a Pan-Indian belonging.

 (ii) They imagined the nation to be full of adventure, heroism, romance and sacrifice.

(iii) Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay's Anguriya Binimoy (1857) was the first historical novel written in Bengal whose hero Shivaji engaged in many battles against a clever and treacherous Aurangzeb.

(iv) The imagined nation of the novel was so powerful that it could inspire actual political movements.

(v) Bankim's 'Artandmath' is a novel about a secret Hindu armed force that fight Muslims to establish a Hindu Kingdom.

(vi) It was a novel that inspired freedom fighters.

(vii) The novel helped in popularising the sense of belonging to a common nation.

Answer 2

The Enlightened scholars like Rousseau, Voltaire, Locke etc were to a large extent responsible for French Revolution. The enlightenment ideas of these scholars disseminate among the French people through printed material and thus paved the way for French Revolution.

The French people were influenced by the ideas of these scholars. They came to known about the equality, liberty and their rights. These scholars wrote against the Divine rights of kingship, despotism and dictatorial authority of the Church. They focused on reason and logic. These ideas spread in France like wild-fire which made people to go against the King and it ultimately paved the way for French Revolution.

                                           OR

Novelists in colonial India wrote for a political cause. They used their novels as a tool to create unity among people, arouse and spread patriotism, expose the exploitation of British and infuse the spirit of sacrifice and freedom among the people.

An example, Bankimchandra Chattopadhya in his novel Anandmath shows various patriotic acts and sacrifices by his characters in service of motherland and against the British subjugation. It also shows victory of common unarmed Indians against the British trained and armed soldiers.