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Social Science · 2025 · 4 marks
Print Culture and the Modern WorldThe New Visual Culture: Ravi Varma Prints, Caricatures and Cartoons4 marksUnderstandcase study
CBSE 2025 · Region 4 · Set 1 · Q34
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow: New Forms of Publication By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture…
Read the source given below and answer the questions that follow : New Forms of Publication By the end of the nineteenth century, a new visual culture was taking shape. With the setting up of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies. Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation. Poor wood engravers who made woodblocks set up shop near the letterpresses, and were employed by print shops. Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their homes or places of work. These prints began shaping popular ideas about modernity and tradition, religion and politics, and society and culture. By the 1870s, caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers, commenting on social and political issues. Some caricatures ridiculed the educated Indians' fascination with Western tastes and clothes, while others expressed the fear of social change. There were imperial caricatures lampooning nationalists, as well as nationalist cartoons criticising imperial rule. $\displaystyle 34.1$ How did the development of printing technology impact visual culture ? $\displaystyle 34.2$ How did Raja Ravi Varma contribute to the mass circulation of art in India ? $\displaystyle 34.3$ How did visual culture shape the memory of the $\displaystyle 19{ }^{\text {th }}$ century social landscape ? Explain.
Marking-scheme solution
34.1. How did the development of printing technology impact visual culture?
(i) Painters like Raja Ravi Varma produced images for mass circulation.
(ii) With the setting up of an increasing number of printing presses, visual images could be easily reproduced in multiple copies.
$\displaystyle 34.2$ How did Raja Ravi Varma contribute to the mass circulation of art in India?
(i) Cheap prints and calendars, easily available in the bazaar, could be bought even by the poor to decorate the walls of their homes or places of work.
(ii) The Raja Ravi Varma Press produced innumerable mythological paintings that were now accessible to the masses.
$\displaystyle 34.3$ How did visual culture shape the memory of the 19th century social landscape? Explain.
(i) Caricatures and cartoons were being published in journals and newspapers, commenting on social and political issues.
(ii) Some ridiculed the educated Indians' fascination with Western tastes and clothes.
(iii) Others expressed the fear of social change.
(iv) Nationalist cartoons criticised imperial rule.
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