The public culture changed due to the emergence of printing technology. The author points out that literacy had led to a new hierarchy. Handwritten books on palm leaves gave way to print ones. Theoretically everybody could buy a book or newspaper but at the same time only a handful of urban elite could access them since literacy level was very low. The literate and semi-literate were held in awe by the unlettered. In other words, it created a new pecking order.

The new technology also brought changes in the work force. Bengal’s printing press had begun in 1778 with British owned presses that employed traditional artisans like ironsmiths, silver and goldsmiths as well as carpenters and carvers as printing assistants and draughtsman. The import of labour from old professions to the new technology was accomplished over a number of years.  The Bengali artisans were required to learn the new technology, and thus to put traditional knowledge to new use.

New technology was used to produce traditional literature. When publishing was established in early nineteenth century, Krishnachandra, an entrepreneur, published the almanac mainly catering to the rural population.

Gradually a new class of readers grew in the urban context. In other words, urbanization led to the growth of demand for more printed books. There was a growth of a class of petty administrators, small retailers, agents, workers in new civic and commercial bodies and the new urban bourgeoisie who demanded more printed literature.

Thus, the printing press catering to a large mass changed the orality of Bengali cultural tradition into a literary one. The culture of Public Theatre in Calcutta was seen by the social reformers as a vehicle for public education and reform. Though it began as an Anglicized, colonial preoccupation, it went on to portray the cultural and spiritual life of Bengal.