In Europe, some people feared the effect of easily available printed books because if there was no control over what was printed and read then rebellious and irreligious thoughts might spread. If that happened, the authority of valuable literature would be destroyed.

Example from Europe : In 1517, the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote Ninety-Five Theses criticizing many of the practices and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. A printed copy of this was pasted on a church door in Wittenberg. It challenged the Church to debate his ideas. Luther’s writings were immediately reproduced in vast numbers and read widely. This led to a division within the Church and to the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

In India fear about printed books was related to women’s education. Conse Native Hindus believed that a literate girl would be widowed and Muslims thought that educated women would be corrupted by reading Urdu romances.

Example from India : In East Bengal, in the early nineteenth century, Rashsundari Debi, a young married girl in a very orthodox household, learnt to read in the secrecy of her kitchen. Later, she wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban which was published in 1876. It was the first full length autobiography published in the Bengali language.