Consider the following statements about the early modern technology in India :
- 1. The Portuguese brought European movable metal types to Goa in 1550.
- 2. The first Indian script of which types were prepared was Tamil.
- 3. The English Company’s first experiment with printing press was at Calcutta.
- 4. The English Company imported printing press to India in 1674-75 at the request of Bhimji Parak.
Which of the statements given above are correct ?
1 and 2 only
2 and 3
3 and 4
1, 2 and 4
Answer is Right!
Answer is Wrong!
This question was previously asked in
UPSC NDA-1 – 2015
Statement 2: Tamil was one of the earliest Indian languages for which movable types were prepared by European missionaries, particularly by Jesuits in the late 16th century for printing Christian literature. It is often cited as the first or among the very first.
Statement 3: The English East India Company’s first printing press was established in Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) around 1674-75, not Calcutta. Calcutta became a prominent British centre much later.
Statement 4: The English East India Company did import a printing press to Bombay in 1674-75 at the request of Bhimji Parak, a prominent Parsi merchant and their chief broker in Surat and Bombay, who saw the potential of printing.
Statements 1, 2, and 4 are presented as correct in Option D. Despite the slight date inaccuracy in statement 1, statements 2 and 4 are historically accurate, while statement 3 is definitively incorrect. The combination offered in D suggests that the question setters considered statement 1 to be sufficiently accurate for the purpose of the question.