ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the gradually evolving relationship between print technology and religion, with special reference to its impact on Hindu consciousness. He focuses on the region of Punjab excluding the princely states. The relationship between religion and technology is twofold. On the one hand, cultural values particularly religious may intervene in the choice and actual use of technology. On the other hand, technology once adopted may affect different aspects of social relations and world-view. The reluctant Indian, especially, Hindu response to the adoption of print technology is linked with a more fundamental issue: the traditional Indian system for the transmission of knowledge. Hindus continued to regard oral communication as the most important mode of teaching, transmission of religious texts and secular knowledge as well as examination of students till the third century B.C. when written records became available.
