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This article asks whether the slow process of divesting Indian native schoolteachers of their traditional authority was only about new concepts and representations of education and knowledge. Following the methodological idea of constellations of affordances, emphasising a relational ontology, the article discusses whether changes in the shape and the relations of objects in Indian classrooms together with the arrival of new objects may have played a silent role in the process of erosion of schoolteachers' authority. Based on a wide range of official and missionary sources, but also referring to individual native voices, the article reconstructs more pervasive and subtle transformations of native elementary classrooms, focusing on surfaces for writing and on "books". The article argues that shifts in the materialities of elementary native schooling took place that repositioned old "gurus" in an unfavourable light before the take-off of teacher training institutions would provide for new definitions of their role as schoolmasters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ottoman State was in a condition of insufficient preparation as it entered the First World War, which would determine its fate. This war had brought domestic production to a halt and created great obstacles to imported products. In this war, which started in 1914 and lasted for four years, the state suffered great losses in terms of economic, military, political and humanity, while the people behind the war suffered great scarcity. Especially in basic consumer products such as flour, milk, cheese and butter, prices increased excessively. This scarcity and price increase were not limited to food and other essential necessities. As a matter of fact, the scarcity of paper, which is a significant material in education, was felt seriously in this period. The fact that the available paper stocks were finished in a short time and the lack of paper caused the education, press and broadcasting activities to be disrupted. Even, the lack of paper reached the level that would prevent the usual activities in government offices. In this study, the paper scarcity that emerged in many parts of the state, especially in Istanbul during the war period between 1914-1918, attempts to supply the paper, the influences of the lack of paper and the activities of the Manager of the Government Printing Office, Mr. Ismail Hamit will be examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]