Trace the history of print revolution in India.
Answer:
- The printing press first came to Goa with the Portuguese missionaries in the mid 16th century.
- Books were printed in Konkani and Kanara languages.
- Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book, in 1579 at Cochin.
- By 1710, Dutch protestant missionaries had printed 32 Tamil texts, many of them were translations of older works.
- By 1780, James Augustus Hickey began to edit the Bengal Gazette, a weekly magazine.
- By the close of 18th century, a number of newspapers were published by Indians too. The first to appear was the weekly ‘Bengal Gazette’ brought out by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohan Roy.