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Mentioning caste of Individuals

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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After settling "transliteration of names in Indic languages" issue, how about removing Caste related mentions from Individuals' bio? Mentioning caste makes no sense in the age we're living, also religion for that matter. KevinBraun 21:29, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

May be there was already a discussion about this issue in the past. However a fresh discussion would be useful. thanks KevinBraun 21:39, 21 December 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbr144 (talk • contribs)

If they have self-identified then it is not a problem; otherwise, it is and I tend to remove the stuff. This is just basic application of WP:BLP. - Sitush (talk) 21:45, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

But most of the times it is not the case. As is, many have not self-identified or make a mention of their caste in the public domain, yet caste finds mention in their cases as well. KevinBraun 22:16, 21 December 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kbr144 (talk • contribs)

I would argue that caste falls under the restrictions of WP:BLPCAT--ethnicity and religion can only be included if they are verified by a reliable source, and generally need to be self-identified. I'd say caste has a lot of parallels (in terms of its real-world implications, as well as its lack of objective verifiability) to ethnicity and religion, so we should follow the same restrictions. Kbr, if you find any, just remove them with an edit summary indicating that a source is needed. However, if the information is verified by a reliable source, it seems like including it is fine. Qwyrxian (talk) 00:26, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

(edit conflict) So WP:BLP applies. No big deal. Look, the standard of India-related bio articles is generally pretty poor. Often, even if a citation exists at the end of a paragraph, it will be found upon examination that the source does not even closely support all of the statements preceding it. So you either {{cn}} or you delete on sight. I admit to being inconsistent in that respect, but on the issue of caste I do delete on sight - it is a highly personal, highly contentious and potentially defining point, whereas which school they attended is usually just a damn nuisance. I do not care what the Govt of India etc may say: like it or not, caste is a major issue in that country and even the existence of the various official classifications, the politically-driven AnSI surveys and the mere fact that so many people clearly of Indian origin choose to war over it here confirms that point. The debate regarding whether caste should be significant or not is one that needs to take place outside the Wikipedia project. We are not censored provided that we have reliable sources, but the BLP policy takes a more strict line than in most instances. I spend a vast amount of my time ripping apart articles such as these. I would rather not do it but, hey, someone has to plough that furrow. - Sitush (talk) 00:28, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Agree with Sitush's point that adding info about cast/race/creed/religion/sexual-orientation/etc. type of personal things without proper references could be disputable. But as long as it is not disputable and over a period of time if editors dont object on it even with the lack of reference, the info need not be removed. If X is of a certain ABC cast and no one objects it, why should the info be deleted just because a source is not present. You have to accept the fact that India related articles cant be fully sourced. Never!
I also disagree with Kevin's point of caste and religion not making sense, in any age we live. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 13:58, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

That sounds as if you are proposing an exception to WP:RS/WP:V for India-related content. Much as I accept that there is systemic bias here, I really do not see how we can just throw out basic policies in this manner. - Sitush (talk) 14:42, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

"Just keep it there until someone raises a flag" is not a good way to do things on Wikipedia. Suppose someone puts something libellous to some article which is not very well known; take for instance: Borapa. How do we filter this? We don't have some board of editors to review content. Lynch7 14:58, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

You can add anything to an article as long as the language is neutral and is supported by reliable, neutral sources. If a person is identified as belonging to a particular caste by a published book or a reputed newspaper or journal, then there is no problem.-Ravi_{My Tea Kadai} 16:37, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

That is not necessarily sufficient in a BLP. It should also be relevant to the person concerned, hence the self-identification point. The same applies to BLPs of Jewish people etc. - Sitush (talk) 17:03, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Thats the fact with India-related articles. We arent fan of documenting all stuffs. Even if documented, we dont keep them in order to make it available. You have to compromise. Either believe on what all people say and add it so or just not add anything at all. Which means you either build an encyclopedia or not. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 17:06, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

"Believe in what people say". WP:OR couldn't be violated better. This is an extremely irresponsible statement you are making. Lynch7 17:10, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

If A thinks a certain thing is right, A says it so. If B says it is wrong, B will say it so. One of them has to prove themselves. Option would be to prove by providing what you call as reliable source. If no one has that, go for consensus. 1000 people say A is right & B is wrong then A IS right. Even if some newsreporter or some author hasnt cared to write it down in past. Knowledge in India used to spread orally. You will probably find a "reliable source" for that. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 17:28, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

That is not merely contrary to our policies but also contrary to all the known methodologies of "proof" of which I am aware. Frankly, it is ludicrous and is a far wider definition of consensus than our own policies and guidelines permit. - Sitush (talk) 17:40, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Agree with Sitush - such an approach would be akin to polling all the people of the world as to their religion, and then declaring the one that comes out tops as true -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 18:06, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

Fine! But what we can really do is stop discussing hypothetical problems to find hypothetical answers. This is not some school assignment where we will get marks which we dont need. & i dont understand, why do you keep citing so-called-policies as if they are not ammendable? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:13, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

This is not a hypothetical problem: it is verifiably the case that hundreds, if not thousands, of India-related BLPs are in breach of policy. And then there are the "List of caste X" articles etc, which also fail to comply. If you want to try achieving an amendment of the BLP policy then you are welcome to try but you would have to take your proposal to a wider audience than is present at this forum. - Sitush (talk) 18:16, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘I'd like to contest Kevin Braun's opening thesis that caste does not matter as being a world view of a person living in a Western Society where the issue is not important. Caste matters in India. it is an official policy subject of the government of India which positively discriminates as per it. You are asked this information for many types of government records. Chances of employment in government including recruitment of soldiers into the armed forces involves caste issues. It matters not just "de jure" but "de facto" in Indian society and Indian politics. So using a secular argument or a Western ethos to do away with mention of caste altogether is not the approach I suggest. We need to have a different solution. AshLin (talk) 16:27, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

See my message above of 00:28 22 December. I do not think that you'll see many here who disagree with you regarding the reality in present day India, although some may wish it was not so. - Sitush (talk) 16:43, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Unless a person self-identifies with a caste, or the caste is relevant, I don't see why we should automatically include the caste of an individual in an article. I'd go so far as to say that self-identification without relevance is not sufficient for inclusion but .... --regentspark (comment) 16:52, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that would be my preferred approach. So, for example, an article about a leader of a caste association or a philanthropist who assists just one community would naturally note that they are of that community, whereas an article about a film actor or sports person almost always should not. - Sitush (talk) 16:59, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

You would not want this to happen but it happens for sure. A group of a certain people belonging to a particular caste get together maybe for a function or so. They have an inauguration of something or prize distribution or whatever. Who is their first choice as chief guest? A celebrity who belong to their caste, religion, region. These groups publish periodicals. Who will they cover through it? Someone who has some commonality with them. A certain boy from a small town makes it to the national hockey team. He will be congratulated by this group. This news will then make to paper. We editors will then use this as a source to record that he made it to the team. He didnt do anything for the caste in particular. But it was his caste itself that made him visible to you. In such cases, why do you dont wanna include caste of actors, businessmen, journalists, sportsmen, professionals & such types? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:22, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

For the simple reason that we don't know for sure. We can't simply be toying around like this with WP:BLPs. You should know very well that caste is an extremely sensitive thing in India, and just throwing them around mercilessly will trigger the big red WP:LIBEL alarm. What is natural in a normal case, would not be natural for a BLP. In short, if it is not explicitly mentioned, then we make absolutely no inferences; I cannot state loud enough that BLP policy is more more stricter than normal WP:V or WP:N or whatever. Lynch7 18:37, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Why am I getting the feeling that we're going round in circles. Lynch7 18:38, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

With the story i told i wanted to point out how apparantly irrelevant caste of people can really be relevant. Ofcourse the caste should be included only if it is referenced. But i dont agree with "self-identified caste" clause. What does that exactly mean? Should that person explicitly come forward & tell his caste? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:54, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

The rationale for 'self-identification' is straightforward. Let's say X, a famous cricketer, is born into a certain caste, let's say Badaganadu Brahmin - I picked it at random from the list on wikipedia, but does not believe in the caste system. Now, a reliable source, say the Times of India (though its reliability is suspect imo!) says that X is a Badaganadu Brahmin and we predominantly feature this in our article on X. This is a violation of the basic principle of liberty, the right to choose your own identity. We can't go around assigning an identity to a person without their consent or without that facet of their identity being relevant to the notable aspects of their life. That is why, unless a person specifically identifies with a social group, it is best to leave it out of the article. --regentspark (comment) 20:59, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

With the story you've told, the most we can possibly do is tell that that person got such-and-such award from this community people, but there is nothing to definitively suggest that the person actually belongs to that caste. In short, yes, that kind of statement (or a mention in a reliable biography) would be something that I would be looking at. Of course Sitush and rgpk may opine differently though. Lynch7 19:13, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

Since we are in involved in Verifiability not Truth and it is so rare that someone opines about his belief online, I am of the opinion, that if there is a reference that says he is A Caste, that should be added with citation. If he says he doe not believe in religion or caste that gets added too with cite. If the caste information is uncited, place a tag and delete some time later. People notable enough to be in Wikipedia do lose a certain amount of privacy which a normal person enjoys due to his anonymity. Imho personal liberties cannot be the excuse for keeping the information away from Wikipedia if a RS exists for it. I am speaking of course wrt Biographies concerned with this WikiProject only. AshLin (talk) 03:23, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

I agree in general with what Animesh is saying. In UK and USA, on many forms one is asked to identify ones ethnic or racial origin. Also, biographies of a number of British politicians, i.e. Ian Duncan Smith, Sebastian Coe, Boris Johnson, David Cameron etc. give details of the mixed heritage of their subjects. For example Coe is quarter Punjabi, Smith is one eighth Japanese, Johnson has Muslim heritage, Cameron is partly of Jewish extraction etc. Are these facts relevant ? I guess they must be because the UK media and the subjects themselves frequently mention them. Similarly caste is central part of the heritage of a Hindu and therefore essential to the biographies of Indian notables. I believe, for a variety of reasons, contemporary Indians take pride in belonging to their caste and would not make an attempt to hide it. Do mistakes happen with a person wrongly being labeled? Yes, all the time. Take the Marathi surname Deshpande. A popular Marathi writer P.L. Deshpande is repeatedly added to the list of Deshastha brahmins, however he happens to belong to the Saraswat brahmin sub-caste. The surname is also found amongst the C.K.P. community. The mistake is however, immediately rectified. In P.L. Deshpande's case because one can find numerous references identifying his caste, however, with others it may take longer but not impossible to find. In my view, the way forward would be to put a citation tag if the reference is not there rather than immediately deleting the unsourced information. Thanks. Jonathansammy (talk) 20:56, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

I have the feeling that you may not have spent a lot of time in the UK, Jonathansammy. Your depiction of the situation is a little wide of the mark, although also not particularly relevant. In any event, in the case of BLPs we simply cannot allow an uncited claim of caste to remain. Period. - Sitush (talk) 21:12, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

"I have the feeling that you may not have spent a lot of time in the UK, Jonathansammy."

What is the relevance of this statement to the point being discussed, Sitush? I am a Guardian reader and was surprised to see you in one of your posts equating The Hindu, a respected. secular, and middle of the road Broad sheet being compared to the almost parochial rightwing tabloid like the Daily mail. That aside, the point I am trying to make with this and also my original message is that ethnic origin is mentioned in biographies of not only Western politicians but also scientists. Check the the List of Jewish Nobel laureates and see for yourself. If you accept what I am saying above, then I don't see why caste of an individual can not be treated in a similar way to the ethnic origin. I do, however, agree with you that caste claims should be backed with reliable sources.Jonathansammy (talk) 19:40, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Actually, given that this discussion has also been taken up by Animesh on my own talk page in the last few hours, I am beginning to think that those who continue to insist that statements regarding caste are valid in situations where the relevance is moot and/or a person has not self-identified should perhaps read WP:JDLI. - Sitush (talk) 21:26, 23 December 2011 (UTC)

its quite clearlty and blatantly pov (how can a comment as suhc even be made?) that "makes no sense in the age we're living, also religion for that matter" WP doesnt push anything as the editors seem to uggest. if its sourced (and per BLP not a threatening mention in a vindicative way) then of course its notably enough tfor a notable person to have it mentioned.Lihaas (talk) 15:08, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

WP is also not a collection of trivia. Unless the point is relevant to the subject then there is no particularly pressing reason to include it, even if it is impeccably sourced. We do not, for example, usually mention the Christian beliefs of thousands of article subjects but we do appear more often than not to mention alleged Hindu beliefs (even when there is nothing to support the statement). It is wrong and people need to stop pushing these trivial and more often than not unsourced agendas. That a Bollywood actor is a Hindu, for example, is not usually a notable point for the wider world, although it may have some personal significance to the actor. This overuse of Hindu/Muslim and caste/community membership smacks of petty point scoring and an intrusive gossip style of writing. It is not encyclopedic unless there is some context to provide relevance. - Sitush (talk) 16:32, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

By removing the caste of a person from his article i assume you will also want to remove his name from that caste's article. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 17:34, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Yes, if it is a BLP violation. I've been doing this for months now. I have tended to approach this issue from that end, ie: in the process of cleaning up the "List of notable members of caste X" articles. In fact, it is through that process, and by talking with various experienced users, that I developed a fairly decent understanding of just how this sort of thing should work and also the scale of the problem that exists - it is a pretty big one. However, I have only concentrated on caste so far, which means that the even bigger problem of the alleged religious beliefs of individuals is probably pretty much untouched. - Sitush (talk) 17:41, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

So you will be striping down all such list and examples of all such people from caste articles and include only names of such people who have contributed something to that caste thus giving impression that all notable people of that particular caste work only for that caste. There are no notable sportsmen, actors, businessmen, singers, painters, doctors, mathematicians, etc. belong to this caste. Let me go and check some other caste which will probably have some notable actors. Oh no! Not here. Maybe some other caste. OH NO! They are nowhere to be to found. That means all notable people like these do not belong to any caste. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:00, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Again, I would like to point out that caste matters. If Wikipedia articles under WikiProject India is to be relevant to Indians, this is useful and meaningful information to some Indians. If we have a policy where citations of reliable sources exists, I dont see the information violating the 5 Pillars. Quoting 5 PILLARS - "All articles must strive for verifiable accuracy: unreferenced material may be removed, so please provide references. Editors' personal experiences, interpretations, or opinions do not belong here. That means citing verifiable, authoritative sources, especially on controversial topics and when the subject is a living person."

Any consensus in WP:BLP arising out of purely Western notions of what is invasion of privacy should not be applied uniformly to all cultures across the world, especially where core tenets of belief are different. In India this is not trivial information, it is sought out and found useful by some people, it is information legally sought by the government. In this case, we should accomodate the key Wikipedia requirement of having cited references. But to exclude information because of a different value system elsewhere in the world, seems more like a WP:JDLI situation to me here. If the information were completely trivial such as the person wears white shirts in preference to others would be unencyclopediac. But here, the caste for example explains a politician's background, his policies, his approach to emerging issues. If the relevance of the information is disputed, as it is in this case here, I'm of the opinion we need to err in the favour of the reader. In the case of caste, this is of interest to many people in India, so we should retain the mention but we should also have a policy which can be enunciated clearly, decide the contexts, the referencing and other aspects and enforce that. AshLin (talk) 18:26, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

I actually think that it is relevant for politicians, especially because of the number of caste-based parties and pressure groups etc. I remain to be persuaded that the same applies to authors, film stars and the like. There may be some notable exceptions but as a whole it seems to me that direct family connections (fathers, uncles etc - akin to, say, the Dimblebys, Redgraves etc) matter more in India than caste for those spheres. I can see the systemic bias point to some extent but by the same token WP:BLP does exist and we are not a gossip rag. I stress again, that in the vast majority of cases that I have seen the caste has not even been sourced and it is in those cases that I have been deleting. Although the Indian population huge, and Wikipedia might actually be a useful tool for improving knowledge and maybe even literacy in that country, it remains the case that the vast majority of the English Wikipedia readership is not likely to have connections to India and, I would suggest, this will remain the case until/unless English becomes the dominant language in the subcontinent.

However, if this is the route that people want to take then be on advance notice: I shall most likely start taking sources such as the Times of India and also many of the websites used for movie articles etc to WP:RSN if they are used to support caste-based statements. I have long believed that these are often dubious & have frequently found them to be mirroring each other, plagiarising and simply getting it wrong on even the most simple stuff. In fact, of the major English language newspapers of India only The Hindu appears to me to be any more authoritative than, say, the UK's Daily Mail. - Sitush (talk) 20:58, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Though properly sourced, even by The Hindu, why do we include spouse's name in political leader's, businessmen's, author's articles? That info is irrelevant most of the time. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 21:15, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

I have the impression that yours is a rebuttal phrased as a question, rather as you tried on my talk page recently. Well, naming spouses and children when they are not themselves notable often does irk me but, again, in my experience in the India sphere they are often not sourced at all. But none of this relates to the current discussion: let's just stick to the India stuff here, since anything else would have to be raised in a much broader context. The subject here is caste, not close family. - Sitush (talk) 21:53, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh no! The point now is neither caste nor family. It is relevance. You dont mind including a properly notably sourced caste of a politician as it is relevant with his work. But you mind including it on doctor's bio as its irrelevant according to you. So with the reason of irrelevance if you are removing caste, you should also propose to remove spouses, children, birth-place, etc. info from biographies. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 00:20, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

No. Caste can probably dealt with here, although perhaps with a request for input at RfC. Spouses etc would affect a far wider range of articles and therefore would need to be dealt with at a forum with a wider initial base. - Sitush (talk) 00:37, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

I think you have forgotten that WP:NEWSORG already exists. So the approach to be taken for any newspaper and its use already exists. Placing TOI on a non-Reliable Sources list will do more harm than good, it has use and application besides being a source for stray caste facts. I dont recommend that you go the backdoor route. I AGF for your intentions but its obvious that there are or may be nuances out of your knowledge. For example, in the case of authors, I have reliable been told that Dalit poetry from Southern India has been suprressed with an agenda by the establishment over the last two hundred years or so. In business, we have a Dalit Chamber of Commerce. I'm sure there are many more cases. It is obvious that caste has not yet worked its way out of the Indian system. I suggest you go one step further and propose a policy here which is put to consensus. Once approved, this will give you the unassailable right to delete caste in WikiProject India where it does not apply within the policy and equal opportunity for those who find caste relevant within agreed parameters of policy to add it. Just a discussion on this noticeboard is not enough. AshLin (talk) 03:49, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

This discussion should assist in determining the nuances, and let's not forget that I completely opposed the person who originated it. I've been accused on this noticeboard of wanting to perpetuate caste, and I'd hate to leave this discussion with people now thinking the opposite: my line is somewhere in between and always has been. Sure, an RfC may be needed at some point but I would also remind you that we have managed without in the past - eg: removal of varna from lead sections. My comment about ToI was intended generally, not merely in relation to mentions of caste. I think that someone else has recently queried its reliability & I know that it was denigrated in the recent India maps protest. Nonetheless, that is for another day and I'll stick to the caste issue here.

Having a Dalit chamber of commerce is no different from having the SDNP - it is a pressure group and if someone has involvement in it as a Dalit then there is no problem. I cannot understand your point regarding suppression of poetry: how does that relate to biographical articles, except in so far as if someone's poetry is suppressed then that may be notable in itself? It seems to me to be no different from, for example, noting that someone was a Russian dissident author during the Cold War period. - Sitush (talk) 07:41, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

I'd just like to add that those who argue that 'if it is sourced' it should be included are not correct. Content is guided by WP:V, which is a threshold for inclusion. Reliable sourcing is a necessary condition for inclusion but it is not a sufficient condition. Content on living people must also satisfy WP:BLP (as well as WP:NPOV and WP:OR) where there is an explicit presumption in favor of privacy. In particular, it should be possible to reasonably infer that the person does not object to the information being included and the information should be notable, relevant, and well-documented (not just well-documented). In other words, if person X has never talked about his or her caste, nor is it relevant to that person's life, it is against our policy to include caste in the article. For example, it is relatively easy to infer the caste of Ramachandra Guha from the material in the article. But, we have no reasonable basis for concluding that he would not object to its inclusion. Neither is that information relevant to his work. Therefore, his caste should not be included in the article (and, fortunately, it isn't.) --regentspark (comment) 16:30, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Again! How is caste irrelevant to any person's life? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 17:35, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

The WP:BLP correct answer is that it is up to each person to decide for themselves whether or not it is relevant to their life. Failing relevance with the reasons for their inclusion in wikipedia, we don't make that decision on their behalf. --regentspark (comment) 18:35, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

What do you not understand about the policies, Animeshkulkarni? In particular, WP:BLP? AshLin mentioned a vote but if such a thing happened then please note that it would be adjudged according to WP:CONSENSUS and that would mean that non-policy based comments are pretty much ignored. - Sitush (talk) 18:18, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Where in whichever policy does it state that caste is irrelevant and hence should not be mentioned? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:26, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Geez. Sorry but I am beginning to lose my patience here. WP:BLP refers to it and this has been pointed out to you previously by myself, RegentsPark, Qwryxian and at least one other (MikeLynch and/or Boing! said Zebedee). I think that you will find all of those named are pretty experienced contributors and all but myself are admins also. - Sitush (talk) 18:30, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

BTW, WP:BLP does not say that caste is irrelevant but none of us have been saying that either. It says that info of this nature should be included only if it is relevant etc. Is this what you are misunderstanding? - Sitush (talk) 18:32, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

I will neglect your patience-loosing line as its irrelevant to this discussion and hence not comment on it.
So you all mean to say that info of this nature (i.e. caste) should not be included if it is not relevant. And you are pointing out at some biographies like that of cricketers, actresses, doctors, artists, etc. as being the examples where caste is irrelevant. Right? Hence i am asking the question "How is caste irrelevant?". Do you want to say that a certain woman born in a backward class where education was not given, they were married of at early age, where they were not allowed to come out in front of stranger males whould have become a notable actress or pilot? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:47, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

That is a good example because it helps clarify how and where we can talk about the caste of an individual. If there are reliable sources that directly associate her caste with her becoming an actress or pilot (for example, a source that says "despite being born in the Z caste that disallows women from this or that, X has had a successful career as a leading light of Bollywood"), then I'd say yes, that statement is relevant in the article. However, if there are sources that merely say that "X was born a Z", with no link between her success and the caste, then I'd say no, there is no relevance. Making the relevance explicit, or even assuming that caste is somehow relevant, would then be a violation of WP:OR. --regentspark (comment) 19:01, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

This was an example where the caste of that person could have been a hinderance to his/her success. Hence there are chances you would find a source which would associate it the way its said by RegentsPark. But if the caste had been an advantage for their notability, i doubt any sources would take the risk of associating it directly. They would rely on readers to assume it so if they want to or just leave it. Their not associating it so does not however make it irrelevant. This care can be taken by us also. To not associate the caste with the subject but merely mention it. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 19:36, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, that would be WP:OR (or WP:SYNTHESIS. Material that is not explicitly covered by a source should not be included in an article. In your example, the hinderance or help to a person, if not explicitly stated by a source, is a conclusion that may or may not be warranted and we should not make it or include material solely because we believe that the implication needs to be made. With a BLP, we need to be extra sensitive.--regentspark (comment) 19:50, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Ofcourse it will be so. Thats why i said that we have to take care to not associate the caste with subject's notability. And that can be easily done & is done many times. Subject's caste is mentioned in his "early life" section which says about his birth-place, his parents names, schooling, notable relatives, other basic things. We usually dont write "He is a Hindu Brahmin critically acclaimed Hindustani classical singer." If so, am sure its clearly completely neglected article by regular editors or was written just few minutes ago. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 21:12, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

If the caste is not associated with the subject's notability, then why mention it? Like I said, in a BLP we only include information that is relevant and that we can reasonably infer that the individual won't object to its inclusion (if it is not relevant). Given that you're saying that the information is not relevant, then how can we 'reasonably infer' that the individual does not object to the inclusion of caste? --regentspark (comment) 21:42, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Just to be clear. If a reliable source indicates that the caste of an individual is relevant, it should be added to the article. If no reliable source indicates that it is relevant, then it can be added only if one can reasonably infer that the person won't object to its inclusion per WP:BLP. Even if one can reasonably draw that inference, it must still be WP:DUE for inclusion but you first have to cross the BLP barrier. --regentspark (comment) 21:53, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

But we do include various non-notability related points in biographies. We have religion (which i guess would be on your next to-be-excluded agenda), parents names, what they wanted to be in childhood, non-notability related education, previous professions, etc. We include them as it is a biography. If we have only notability related things, it would become a career portfolio. & you are not sure either if these are objectionable or not. And even if objectionable, we arent writing anything that the sources didnt not already say. The objection should be directed to the sources. We are also taking care that no notability-related inferences can be drawn from caste. We arent giving any undue credit also. Its one line. Thats the least you can write. Okay fine! We will mention the caste in a very long 30-40 words sentence so that it doesnt appeare to be given weightage. We also will not hyperlink that caste. Blue colour stands out. You know what, you can make a "Special checklist for mentioning caste", put it on all talk pages, make editors comply with all things on it such as these. But caste should be included. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 23:03, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Religion should not be mentioned either, unless it is relevant or we can reasonably infer that the person does not object to its mention. I believe, for example, that its exclusion has been discussed on the Arundhati Roy talk page and was explicitly excluded there. But let's not get side tracked by WP:OTHERSTUFF. I'm not sure why you're so keen to get caste included on BLP articles. I've given you substantial policy based reasons for excluding caste when it is neither relevant nor self-identified. Could you give us a substantial policy based reason for including caste when it is neither relevant nor self-identified? Or, as a weaker criteria, when it is neither relevant nor do we have a basis for believing that the individual will not object to its inclusion? --regentspark (comment) 00:01, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘I fail to understand on which policy of BLP you stand your opposition. Hence i will try to go through those which i feel you are pointing at. (1) Verifiability: Issue cleared. We include caste only if verifiable by all the WP policies of referencing & sourcing. (2) Neutral Point of View: We are taking care that caste is not the determining factor to subject’s notability nor is undue weightage given to it. (3) No Original research: We won’t be including original researches. In fact we would also be taking care that no inferences can be drawn by readers with regards to the subjects’ notability & caste. (4) Privacy of personal information: Caste of a person in India is not personal information. Schools/colleges have it, government has it, census includes it and almost all application forms have it.
Also, as i mentioned above, removing names of notabilities from caste articles gives wrong impression that the only notable people of this caste are the people who work for the caste. Wikipedia is used as source of research (even with all the limitations and don’t-believe-wikipedia-completely clauses.) There have been notable researches done with regards to caste and genetics, caste and social-&-economic-differentiation, etc. I repeat, we are not going to make these researches. But we are only going to provide basic information of who belongs to this caste. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 10:55, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

I guess I wasn't clear above. The policy is WP:BLP and the point is "presumption in favor of privacy". The question for you is why, when caste is not relevant to a person's reason for inclusion in the encyclopedia, should we ignore the reasonably infer that the person does not object clause. Hope that helps clarify the policy point in question. You need to provide a reason, with sources that support that reason, if you believe that the policy is not applicable here. --regentspark (comment) 11:53, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Its stated in the policy itself that as a reliable source has published it, it may reasonably be inferred that the subject does not object. Plus, caste is not a private entity like medical records. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 13:06, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Well, there are two caveats. First, it must be widely published and second it must be due. Merely published by one odd reliable source is insufficient you will need to demonstrate that it is published in a wide range of reliable sources. Second, since wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of facts, you will need to show that inclusion of caste is not indiscriminate. We don't, for example, include the height and weight of an author even if it is available from reliable sources. You're arguing for a blanket rule of inclusion for the caste of an individual. Could you explain why we need such a rule (rather than simply attempting to refute policy points that argue against the inclusion)? --regentspark (comment) 01:01, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Wide, as usual, is not defined. In an article which has references of 4-5 sources of early-life, childhood, etc. where caste can be mentioned, one source mentioning it is wide enough. (Ofcourse for the sake of objection you may object that too. Cant help! That’s how much our subjects are documented.) Caste is not something that you would find in western bios. That for one makes it not indiscriminate. Within Indian bios you will find how our subjects belong to various castes. So that too makes it not indiscriminate. I am not asking for a blanket rule of including castes in all bios. I am saying to put a sentence in every bio that “He/She belongs to (blank) caste” even if the caste is not know. I am objecting on deletion of this info.
Also rewinding on the BLP Privacy issue, i don’t think it covers caste in it. For one, i don’t think caste was even considered while creating that policy. (Was it? Can we have some historic info of how these policies are made?) And another one is that this policy fears identity theft and is hence made so to avoid adding personal info like telephone numbers, addresses, bank account numbers, etc. I don’t see how caste can be the reason for identity theft. That must be some lousy thief. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 13:07, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

I think it is time you answered a few questions otherwise this discussion will not go anywhere. Why do you feel caste should be included in Indian BLPs? I think you need to provide some sort of evidence that it is not possible to understand an Indian without knowing what caste he or she belongs to. --regentspark (comment) 16:14, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

That was a funny question. For understanding anything, not just people, the more info you get, the more you understand it. You can say that frog is an amphibian animal with protruding eyes without a tail. You understood it. Now you add to it that it has webbed digits. Did you understand it more or not? & btw, you havent answered two of my questions. (1)What impression do you give to the readers who will find names of only political leaders and people who have their work field based on the caste and no mathematicians, jurists, military officers, doctors, etc.? (2) Isnt Wikipedia supposed to be a source for research? There have been notable researches related to caste. Shouldnt we atleast provide names of people who belong to these castes? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 20:23, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Sigh. The inclusion of caste violates the right of a person to define their own identity. If you're going to include it, you should have a good reason to do so. I don't see how, for example, knowing the caste of Ramachandra Guha adds anything to his article. As to your questions, (1) I don't understand what you're getting at. Why would it matter whether we include the caste of mathematicians in their articles? (2) Is there research that links mathematicians to caste? By explicitly including caste because of some generic "researches related to caste" you are engaging in WP:OR. Should we include height because some research somewhere has shown a relationship between height and income? Now, could you please answer my question: What does caste, when it is not relevant to a person's notability, add to the article (other than your apparent personally held belief that "caste is important")? --regentspark (comment) 23:04, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

“The inclusion of caste violates the right of a person to define their own identity.” This statement of yours is what WP calls as Original Research! Whereas information published at Caste_system_in_India#Genetic_analysis is not Original Research. Table published here about Adult literacy of maharashtrian castes in 1911 by Christophe Jaffrelot is not Original research. DNA analysis published here is not Original Research. For genetics-caste relationships read Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia, which is also not an Original Research. These all are examples. I personally don’t know anything about Ramachandra Guha and hence i can’t say anything about him. But i would take some other example now. The article on Deshpande says that majority of the people with this surname are Deshastha Brahmins. But PuLa is Saraswat. Hence not mentioning it specifically misleads readers. Also, as already said few times, the article on a particluar caste, eg Iyengar would only include names of spiritual leaders and politicians. Same will happen with all castes. So it also raises a question as to where do other notabilities belong and also gives impression that all notable people (Iyengars in this example) are only spiritual leaders or politicians, which is also misleading. Now, if you at all don’t know whether Rahul Deshpande is deshastha or saraswat or whatever, you are helpless and can not avoid people from being probably mislead. But if you certainly know what he is, you SHOULD avoid deceptive information. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 12:36, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Fletcher is a common surname in the English-speaking world. It is thought to have first been used for people involved in Fletching. There probably are still some people called Fletcher who do indeed fletch today (one of my friends has that name and certainly fixes my arrows on occasion). However, we don't go around every article where someone is called Fletcher and say "by the way, this person is/is not involved in fletching". As for the lists of notable members of caste X, well, practically all of those which I have come across have been cut by something like 95% because the entries within them were unverified: we do not usually have separate lists of "notable people from town x" or of "notable Christians" and so on; perhaps should not have these caste lists. - Sitush (talk) 15:36, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

That could be the case with Fletchers as it might not be a common notion in English-speaking world to assume a Fletcher to be a fletcher. But in India, every Deshpande would be assumed to be a Brahmin, with first priority being a Deshastha Brahmin. Exceptions and inclusions should hence be mentioned. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 15:53, 29 December 2011 (UTC)

Wrong reply, on at least two grounds that have already been mentioned to you. Firstly, this is the English language Wikipedia and, like it or not, will have to adapt to how most speakers of English perceive the world. Or provide a really good explanation to counter their bias ... which brings me to my second point. You would need to provide reliable sources to verify this opinion that the general reader of Wikipedia is unable to recognise that there may be exceptions to a "rule", and that is after first providing sources to verify that the "rule" is in fact one that Wikipedia policies would recognise in the first instance. I am fairly sure that you cannot achieve both of these across all of the 4000-odd communities that, for example, the AnSI determined to exist ... and then repeat it on every relevant article and still get round the consensus that is WP:BLP.

Given enough time, almost anyone can find an exception to any rule, if only because rules are merely hypotheses. There are ways to deal with exceptions, whether it is on Wikipedia or in the wider, real life context. A default such as you seem to suggest is definitely not the way because it fails both Wikipedia's communal consensus and the wider test of what is "reasonable". It gives undue weight to matters that are personal and unverified over the basic right to privacy and self-determination. It is, for the sake of example, the rule of the gutter press over the humane. Can you not provide some better substance to your position? - Sitush (talk) 00:48, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Oh! The "english-wikipedia-is-for-english-people" card! If english readers dont care about knowing the caste of people why do they even care to know what caste at all is? -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 09:54, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, but that is a ridiculous piece of logic. Caste as a systematic, historic and present day socio-economic-religious reality has a valid place in any broad-based encyclopedia. Libelling someone does not, nor does making unfounded or factually uncertain statements. Further, the system can be a valid subject without it being necessary to brand individuals.

It seems to me that despite numerous requests, including such recent examples as that of Regentspark at 23:04 28 December, you are still failing to provide a rationale. Since it now also seems that you are the only person pursuing that course here, I think that it is incumbent upon you to do just that. Any further response that does not address your rationale is merely prolonging a situation where you keep drumming your personal viewpoint without providing just cause: it is, indeed, pointless. - Sitush (talk) 09:10, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Fine! Lets delete it. Lets start with FAs & GAs. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 16:36, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

No censorship please, when a reliable source for example says that Ravi Shankar was born into a Brahmin family, then that alone is nothing demeaning towards him, just as it is not demeaning to say B. R. Ambedkar was born into a Dalit family. What would Ambedkar's article look like if you took out every mention of caste? It would be nonsensical. Thank you Hekerui (talk) 17:28, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

@Hekerui, No! For B R Ambedkar it wont be removed. It will be removed only for those people whose notability has got nothing to do with their caste. eg. businessmen, artists, jurists, other professionals. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 17:33, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, and where do you place the cut off date? Ravi Shankar's autobiography mentions caste, how soon after his death until one is allowed to add the info back?And if you to justify the deletion of material with WP:BLP, then all the dead people articles retain the mentions and only those on the still living are cleaned out? Judgements about inclusion of such info should be made for individual articles, not across the board. Hekerui (talk) 17:56, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

Good point! But i was assuming that caste should be deleted from all people's articles, living or dead. Because all points mentioned above relate to dead people too. Like privacy, branding individuals, no relation of caste with notability, defamation, etc. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 19:38, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

I've been waiting for this one and am surprised that no-one appears to have raised it earlier. The simple answer is that since caste is inherited and most people have close relations, we have to be careful that we are not committing a BLP violation of the relations even when the subject of the article is dead, whether they are named in the article or otherwise. If caste was not irrelevant to the person's Wikipedia notability then it remains irrelevant after they have died. - Sitush (talk) 19:44, 1 January 2012 (UTC)

The originator seems missing after opening this box. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 11:04, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Poll

---

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page, such as the current discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Please suggest/vote for INCOTM - March 2012

An article needs to be selected by the community for WP:INCOTM for the month of March. Please feel free to add suggestions and also vote. Last date - 29th February 2012. BPositive (talk) 06:03, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Just a small remark. I noted in the last month INCOTM, selecting Dance in India because many women voted for it didn't help improve the article drastically. I suggest we drop the idea of promoting a cause because not all editors can be forced to work on it. Noopur28 (talk) 15:28, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Nominations

• Abbas Kazmi - nominated by User:Ratnakar.kulkarni

1. Ratnakar.kulkarni

• Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus - nominated by User:AroundTheGlobe

1. AroundTheGlobe
2. Hisham
3. naveenpf -- support as member of WP:INRI, will try to create Wikipedia:Route diagram template for Mumbai Suburban Railway
4. User:AshLin -- too many biographies, let us have a heritage railway station.
5. -- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫

• APJ Abdul Kalam nominated by User:Hisham Y Done --BPositive (talk) 16:33, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

1. Hisham
2. Anbu121 (talk me)
3. kondi ^{talk/contribs} —Preceding undated comment added 17:55, 22 February 2012 (UTC).
4. Pseudofusulina
5. -- Tinu Cherian - 02:48, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
6. Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 10:07, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
7. Noopur28
8. -- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫
9. Lynch7
10. — Bill william compton^Talk
11. Debastein

• Indra Nooyi - nominated by User:Nitika.t

1. Nitika
2. Nicke.me —Preceding undated comment added 12:41, 25 February 2012 (UTC).
3. User:AshLin -- a worthy cause.
4. BPositive
5. Netha Hussain —Preceding undated comment added 09:51, 27 February 2012 (UTC).
6. basic.atari —Preceding undated comment added 11:10, 27 February 2012 (UTC).
7. Abhilasha369 —Preceding undated comment added 11:54, 27 February 2012 (UTC).
8. TheyCallMeHeartbreaker (talk) 02:44, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
9. Aurorion (talk) 09:49, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Results

APJ Abdul Kalam nominated by User:Hisham got the maximum number of votes (11). It was nominated for the last month's COTM as well but fell short of one vote to Dance in India. This time, Indra Nooyi fell short of two votes. Having it as the COTM would have been a worthy cause. But I think the result is a fair one considering the popularity of APJ and the scope for improvement. Hopefully, APJ Abdul Kalam will attract many editors and we will be able to improve the article to a significant extent.

Thank you all for voting! I look forward to your contribs on the article.

The INCOTM for the month of March 2012 is APJ Abdul Kalam.
--BPositive (talk) 15:56, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Comments

Restored the core topics template. A small addition with positive spinoff. Lets people discover articles. AshLin (talk) 03:46, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Why WP:INDIA sucks big time!!!!

I find that categories for districts in India have the district name in small letters like Category:Villages in Adilabad district. I find this naming really strange and difficult to understand. Proper nouns should be in capitals and "d" in district should be capitalised as per Wikipedia:Naming conventions. Every other Wikiproject follows the conventions, like Category:People from Harris County, Texas and not Category:People from Harris county, Texas. Why does WP:INDIA alone not follow the convention? Any specific reason? I had earlier initiated a discussion here but no one bothered to reply.-Ravi_{My Tea Kadai} 02:56, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I do not have any knowledge or opinion on this issue hence I did not post. Feel free to put it in a vote and start changing the names after consensus. Perhaps a bot like Tinucherianbot could help you. As far as epithets go, I do think it is a tad harsh that you label the WikiProject as such just on the basis of a small MOS issue. You are quite likely to put off those who could probably help you. And as this is a Wiki, you have the absolute freedom of making WikiProject India not suck! AshLin (talk) 03:07, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I guess there was a debate about the same few years back (before 2008), in which it was resolved that we must use "district" rather than "District". Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 03:20, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Here is the link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Indian_districts/Naming. Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 03:31, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

It did not reach consensus though; the debate was never closed. — Ganeshk (talk) 03:32, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

I consider the reasoning in the discussion to be rather strange. Anyway, if we are to consider that the name of the district is "Thanjavur" and not "Thanjavur District", we should rather rename people category as "People from the district of Thanjavur" than "People from Thanjavur district". That would be more appropriate.-Ravi_{My Tea Kadai} 14:08, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

It is only within the last few hours that a bot has been going round decapping District for some category names - eg here - apparently as a result of a discussion at WP:CFDS. I found that strange but this is the second time recently that there has been a CFDS discussion to which I would have contributed if only I had known that it was taking place. It looks like I am going to have to add CFDS to my watchlist. - Sitush (talk) 10:59, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Poll

It is being debated whether the "district" in the names of districts in India should be capitalized. Please weigh in your opinions here and participate in this consensus

Retain district

1. Support : Maintain the status quo -- Tinu Cherian - 03:03, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
2. Support : Vide TC above. AshLin (talk) 03:10, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
3. Support: Per above. --Dwaipayan (talk) 03:23, 24 February 2012 (UTC)
4. Support -- ɑηsuмaη ^{ʈ ᶏ ɭ Ϟ} 10:18, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Change to District

• Support As we've already seen here, it is not clear whether the official name of the district of Tirunelveli was just "Tirunelveli" or "Tirunelveli District". Hence, due to ambiguity, we shall follow the naming convention used for articles on political entities of other countries.-Ravi_{My Tea Kadai} 14:25, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Do something else

• Support. The "district" appears to not be part of the name of the administrative area—or at least it is not clear one way or the other. So, it appears to me that the word "district" in the names is acting more of a disambiguator than anything else. So I think it should be "Triunelveli (district)", if anything. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 20:52, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Doubtful whether "district" was not a part of the administrative area. Even district website use capital "D". See [1]-Ravi_{My Tea Kadai} 02:27, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

That's pretty much the issue of contention that has always existed. Otherwise there would be no real dispute in what to do. Some of the district websites I have seen do capitalize the word, but others do not: eg, [2]. Some switch back and forth between the two forms, seemingly at random: eg, [3]. There are hundreds of these and I doubt you or anyone else has checked every single one. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 02:29, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

One of the problems is that common alphabets for various Indian languages (Devanagari, Urdu) don't use cases; so, the transliterations for things like "district," "state," etc., are variable, whereas in English we have rigid rules for letter case. Also, sometimes the "district" is part of the name commonly used to distinguish from the metropolitan area, other times it does not matter--in English, too, this would cause casual capitalizations, Florida state driver's license Washington State driver's license. . In my opinion, we should check to see if there are already MOS rules for it, if not, pick one and go uniform throughout the project. I'll support and follow whatever path project members choose, and I'm not vested in either. Pseudofusulina (talk) 04:08, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

I agree that being fairly uniform is the key. Right now there is uniformity—the small-case "d"—but it has been a long slog to get there. It might now be easier to change now that it is at least consistent one way. Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 04:41, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

I differ in opinion. Since it could not be established for sure that the district of Tirunelveli was named "Tirunelveli" and not "Tirunelveli District", it is better to follow the prevailing convention in other Wikiprojects.-Ravi_{My Tea Kadai} 18:00, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

What is the prevailing convention in other wikiprojects? Is there one? I don't see any problem with conforming to what other projects are using. Pseudofusulina (talk) 19:31, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Well, they don't really have the same problems of uncertainty, so it varies. For ones that they are certain that "district" is part of the name, they use "FOO District", as with Category:Districts of Peru. For ones that are certain that "district" is not part of the name, they use "FOO (district)" if disambiguation is needed—or just the name of the district without the word "district" at all if it is a unique name, as in Category:Districts of Germany—see especially Category:Districts of Bavaria for examples of the disambiguation. The issue here is—do we assume that district is part of the name and therefore capitalize? Or do we assume that district is not part of the name and therefore disambiguate? The current approach has split the baby and taken a middle road approach and used the non-parenthetical "district". Good Ol’factory ^(talk) 21:13, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Changing the scope of WikiProject Protected Areas of India

There is a proposal to expand the scope of WikiProject Protected Areas of India and expand its scope. Please join the discussion here. AshLin (talk) 18:01, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Announcement

In the absence of any dissenting voice, Wikipedia:WikiProject Protected areas of India has been renamed as "WikiProject Biodiversity, Protected areas & Environment of India" with suitably enlarged scope. AshLin (talk) 10:56, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Resurrection of Wikipedia:Manual of Style/India-related articles

A recent decision on the use of indic scripts in the leads of India-related articles was made (see main discussion here and clarification here). This decision has not been properly communicated and User:DeltaQuad and I agree that it should be placed in the Manual of Style somewhere. The most appropriate place would be in the India-related articles subpage, but it is currently inactive. Surely there are now enough India-related article to warrant the resurrection of these guidelines. What are your thoughts? Please join the discussion here. Bazonka (talk) 08:59, 24 February 2012 (UTC)

What is the decision? One of these discussions is on a user talk page, so a community decision was not made there, and I can't follow the one on the other board. Pseudofusulina (talk) 07:22, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

This is precisely the point - the decision has not been communicated well. The discussion on the user page is a summary/clarification of the decision that was made on the this page. The consensus was to remove scripts from the lead and replace them with IPA to clarify the pronunciation. Bazonka (talk) 07:33, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

No link was given on the noticeboard to the user page. There are many arguments and counter-arguments on the talk itself, which may have influenced the final decision. The "remove the scripts and replace them with IPA to clarify the pronunciation" policy for all cases (places, people, films) seems a bit strange. When the voting and views were case-wise, how can the result be for all cases? Confused. --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 15:52, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

The link to the userpage is right at the top of the thread. Anyway, the point I am trying to raise here relates to the communication of decisons in general, and the possible reinstatement of the Indian Manual of Style. A discussion about the merits of this particular decision (and I think you have a point), should be in a separate thread. Bazonka (talk) 18:47, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Re-instatement of MOS-India

• Support. I support the idea revival put forward by Bazonka and thank him for bringing that resource to our notice. Based on this we shall henceforth communicate outcomes of discussion on issues to the talk page of MOS-India for inclusion by consensus. This revival will make the job easier for committed editors in combating trolls/POV warriors. AshLin (talk) 19:51, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Since no-one has objected, I have slightly amended WP:MOSIN and reinstated it under Category:Wikipedia Manual of Style (regional). The changes that I have made to it are:

1. A few non-controversial spelling and punctuation fixes.
2. Removal of the "Geographic articles" section because each of its subsections was disputed. I would recommend discussing and reinstating this as soon as possible.
3. Change the spelling guideline from use of only British English to use of only Indian English. This seemed like an obvious change.

I have not included anything about the decision mentioned above not to use Indic scripts in the leads of articles. This seems like a controversial decision requiring further discussion and consensus. I suggest that any further discussions about style take place at WT:MOSIN. Bazonka (talk) 08:53, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

I've now deleted some more text in response to concerns raised by User:Redtigerxyz at WT:MOSIN (I should have checked this first before posting here). Hopefully all of the text currently in WP:MOSIN is uncontroversial. Further discussion is needed regarding the deleted parts before they can be included again. This may not be a perfect solution, but at least we now have somewhere to record style decisions. Bazonka (talk) 09:08, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

User:Dav subrajathan.357

Can someone review the edits by the above named user? They have been relentlessly adding transliteration scripts in different languages to a bunch of articles over the past 48 hours. I have reverted many of their edits, and I think further scrutiny is necessary – [4]. Thanks. — Nearly Headless Nick {C} 22:27, 25 February 2012 (UTC)

ATTENTION! Can someone review the actions of this user? They are continuing to add the transliteration scripts to articles – [5]. — Nearly Headless Nick {C} 19:05, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

I am reviewing now. - Sitush (talk) 19:09, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Unassessed WP India articles

The number of unassessed articles on WikiProject India currently stands at more than 18,000! Im wondering if there is an active task force or even a single member of the project that is dealing with these assessments? [6] Around The Globe^{सत्यमेव जयते} 12:28, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

User:Naveenpf has recommended on list that the solution for this is a TAG & Assess drive akin to the drive held in 2008. Thanks for bringing this to our attention, Naveen. I really like this idea & promise to participate. Please add your name below. Basically you agree to:

• Understand the process of assessing and correct placing of WikiProject India tag.
• Assess at least 200 articles (become eligible for awards as you assess 50 & more). :))

AshLin (talk) 18:26, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Add names here for participation

1. User:AshLin
2. Animeshkulkarni (talk) 18:43, 26 February 2012 (UTC) (Dont know how this works. But lets try.)
3. -- ɑηsuмaη ^{ʈ ᶏ ɭ Ϟ} 10:03, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
4. Around The Globe^{सत्यमेव जयते} 10:09, 27 February 2012 (UTC) Since the backlog is huge, will try to give a hand, but my contributions may be limited
5. Anbu121 (talk me) 11:59, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
6. --sarvajna (talk) 13:36, 27 February 2012 (UTC) I can try
7. — Nearly Headless Nick {C} 18:06, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
8. — Bill william compton^Talk
9. Markvs88 (talk) 18:30, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
10. --ÐℬigXЯaɣ 19:16, 27 February 2012 (UTC) (Will try to cover some articles whenever I can)
11. basic.atari —Preceding undated comment added 01:30, 28 February 2012 (UTC).
12. naveenpf (talk) 01:36, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
13. ssriram_mt (talk) - will keep tabs on Tamil Nadu, Hinduism, Tamil Civilization.
14. Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 02:53, 28 February 2012 (UTC) Count me in like the last time.
15. VasuVR (talk, contribs) 04:25, 28 February 2012 (UTC) Especially Indian music articles. Done about 40+ as of now.
16. Nitika.t (talk) 05:57, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
17. -- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫ 15:10, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
18. utcursch | talk 15:14, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
19. --Redtigerxyz ^Talk 17:12, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
20. --Dwaipayan (talk) 19:55, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
21. Noopur28 Noopur28 (talk) 05:04, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
22. Nicke.me (talk) 16:37, 29 February 2012 (UTC)
23. Abhilasha369 Sorry for joining so late! I've not been editing for a while now and I'll be busy till July but I'll do my best to contribute anyway! :) Abhilasha369 (talk) 02:39, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Comment

• I am really heartened to see as many as 19 editors volunteer to assess the articles, I expected single digit response. My thanks in advance to those who have volunteered. :) AshLin (talk) 19:52, 28 February 2012 (UTC)
• In the meantime, I have cloned the Tag & Assess 2012 competition page. I now need help to load links into the 50 odd page lists which are being listed out for assessment.

Once that's done, we can be on our way. :) AshLin (talk) 19:52, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Since the tool generates on a daily batch, the positions would be relative and the range would be varying? Also, can we have an expressional search and execute - something like temple *, station *, constituency *. In the past few months i have assessed close to 3k articles in TN. So a state-wise (bit complex as until we read, we never know the state) or theme wise assessment is fine? Ssriram mt (talk) 02:16, 29 February 2012 (UTC)ssriram_mt

If you look at the Tag & Assess 2012 page , you will realise that there are two places to update. One is your entry as a participant where you enter the total number of articles you assessed or re-assessed next to your name. Since you may be assessing articles other than the workgroup system below, you need to keep count next to your name.

The other is the worktable. We need people to tackle the bulk of the huge amount of un-assessed articles which cannot be done by selective choosing around the pile. So each page is being created which has articles permanently listed on it. (I've asked for help with regard to this). Volunteers can choose a workgroup of 250 links to assess. Once that is done, they can choose another. This is from the point of view of the WikiProject's accounting, not the personal achievement.

As soon as this is done, I will inform this group. I understand that experienced editors will not need to wait for me to set up instructions. They have already started editing. Thank you guys! The good news is that the number of un-assessed articles was 18,200 plus articles two days ago is now down to 18,085! Wonderful progress folks!

As far as newbies are concerned. Please bear with, me. I will have a "How To/FAQ" page set up in a couple of days, and also the WorkGroup pages loaded and you can begin editting after reading and understanding that!

Thanks once again for the great response guys! AshLin (talk) 04:31, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I have started tagging article talk pages with WP:INDIA banner on untagged articles. This will get more work for the tagging team to do soon. Let me revise my old lessons (I was out of touch with Wikipedia for more than 3 years). Amartyabag ^TALK2ME 14:38, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Volunteer coordinator

May I also request for a volunteer to coordinate this event. We would appreciate someone who is not already associated with city SIG/Language SIG/outreach or GLAM project to run this. If you are a new to this kind of responsibility and willing to volunteer, I will guide & help you & hold your hand through the process. AshLin (talk) 18:26, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

• Comment - I think the coordinator must be someone who has considerable experience of reviewing articles, since the volunteers signed up so far seem to have indicated that they dont have much review experience. Around The Globe^{सत्यमेव जयते} 10:11, 27 February 2012 (UTC)
• In the meantime, I have begun the process, I would be grateful if someone else will volunteer to run it, so that I can jump-start more processes, else I will get completely bogged down with this. Anyone is welcome to volunteer, notwithstanding our remarks above. if you are not volunteering only because you feel inexperienced, we will provide you dedicated support as mentioned above. AshLin (talk) 19:47, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

I volunteer to co-ordinate this activity. If some more are also in game, let us do this together. Ssriram mt (talk) 04:03, 29 February 2012 (UTC)ssriram_mt

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘I would like to take this opportunity to thank Sriram (User:Ssriram mt) for volunteering to take on this responsibility. It is great when experienced editors stand forth and lead and I'm sure he will do a great job. Please welcome him to the team of people in charge of responsibility in WikiProject India. Sriram, you have the complete support of the community. Happy editing. AshLin (talk) 04:37, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Punjab Education in 19 and 20th Century

• The editor Sitush has put a speedy deletion tag on this article initiated by me .
• Here's the version On the day of my last edit dated 15th of January where it contained 6 valid citations from 5 books
• Sitush makes 15 edits Starting 15th Feb upto 26th Feb aggressively deleting content , till the article is bereft of content .
• On 26th Feb having deleted content and citations now adds a tag recomending speedy deletion
• 26th Feb posts a warning on my talk page I could be blocked for persistent copyright violation] then amends the message in quick succession
• Immediately followed by the admin Boing! said Zebedee

• Sitush has been posting threats of having me blocked from wikipedia , continuously deleting my edits for quite some time now and here is an immediately previous interaction from my page before this latest episode James Mill Article . A careful reading of this interaction will exhibit the double standards being worked on by Sitush .

• The admin Boing! said Zebedee has been unabashedly misusing his admin powers to support Sitush . There is a team of editors including these and several others who have been responsible for browbeating several great editors on India related articles . Some have been silenced some driven to blocks such as Mangowong .
• Here's an instructive discussion that has already taken place , related to exactly this problem Wikipedia talk:Noticeboard for India-related topics/Archive 47#Varna status in the lead of articles# Varna status in the lead of articles on this board .
• Ridiculous rules are being framed that are not only made for misuse but are being misused to silence .The same names of this team crop up again and again and again .
• I can provide specific examples galore of ridiculous deletions of perfectly valid content and horrendous content included .
• I can see the determined bid to get me blocked , by this team and I may be blocked or banned seeing the vicious combined effort that has been underway by Sitush and his team . But Its time that Sitush and Boing! said Zebedee and others were stopped from editing any India related article
  Intothefire (talk) 17:58, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

You have been advised previously on several occasions to take matters relating to user conduct to WP:ANI or similar. This is not the appropriate forum. - Sitush (talk) 18:04, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Both Sitush and I have tried to help Intothefire to understand the way to build Wikipedia articles, and this is the kind of reaction we get. The article in question consisted of almost nothing but copyright violations, and I tried to explain to Intothefire that he cannot make Wikipedia articles simply by stringing together sentences copied from elsewhere (even if the sources are referenced) and that he must write material in his own words - see his Talk page for my attempt to explain, and see the history of it for numerous previous examples of WP:IDHT. Once the copyvio parts were removed, there was really nothing left, so CSD:A3 seems appropriate. I would also refer any reviewing admins to this discussion, and will leave it to them to decide if any admin action is needed regarding these continuing personal attacks from Intothefire. (I won't take any action myself, as the accusation is partly against me). As for the reference to Mangowong - that user's block gathered overwhelming support and his behaviour was roundly condemned at WP:ANI for his repeated nasty attacks on other editors (and that Intothefire is defending him speaks volumes, I think) - you can find it in the archives if you really need it. Anyway, if you have a complaint about editor or admin behaviour, Intothefire, take it to WP:ANI - but be aware that your own behaviour will be scrutinized if you do -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 18:13, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘I support Speedy delete. However the topic is notable but the container topic Education in Punjab, India already exists and is in great need for tender, love & care (viz, referenced, NPOV & paraphrased edits). I strongly recommend IntoTheFire to please slow down, stop fighting, learn the Wikipedia culture and learn how to process information so that it is useful for Wikipedia. Your product/output is flawed at the moment and unacceptable as pointed out by editors above. Strangely, after PunjabiGladiator, this is the second person on Punjabi topics who has issues learning about Wikipedia culture. Co-incidence! AshLin (talk) 18:41, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes indeed - definitely a notable topic, and it would be good to have a non-plagiarized article about it -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 19:26, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

The article has been deleted in a day of putting the tag for deletion , so it makes my job of specifically refering to diffs dificult , but I will reconstruct chronologically how the deletion unfolded .

15th of Feb :For an article created by me , Sitush put a tag saying the article is a mess

• 26th Feb :The Deletion Tag is put by Sitush on the article .
• 26th Feb :Sitush puts a warning on my talk page
• 26th Feb : Boing said Zebdee adds a comment on my page following Sitush in quick succession
• 26th Feb : I post a message on this page
• 26th Feb : The article with the deletion tag gets deleted -specific reason stated by RHaworth deleted "Punjab Education in 19 and 20th Century" ‎ (A3: Article has no meaningful, substantive content
  

But as I have already shown above

• 15th of January On the day of my last edit dated the article contained 6 valid citations from 5 books , no citation had been challenged for reliability , verification , or incomplete citation on the page or Talk page .
• 15th of January onward s Sitush made 15 edits upto 26th Feb aggressively deleting every single cited content , till the article was left bereft of all content , and a fit case for A3: Article has no meaningful, substantive content

So the article was deleted not for copyright violations but no substantive content .

The substantive content has been removed by Sitush offcourse .

Now lets see some background activity of Sitush and Boing said Zebdee

• 26 February 2012: Sitush posts a message to Boing said zebdee about this article His edit commentary "what should we do about ITF"

1. ITF created Punjab Education in 19 and 20th Century a few days ago. It was a complete mess then but I just tagged it alone in the hope that they might improve the thing. I've just been through it now and, aside from the many stylistic issues etc, it consisted entirely of copyright violations from various sources. This is by no means the first time that ITF has done this. Their continued lack of competence despite > 5000 contributions is pretty concerning.

And what do we do with an article that is now pretty much empty? It does potentially fill a gap because our other articles on the subject relate specifically to the post-independence Punjab regions of India and Pakistan, whereas I think that ITF intended this one to represent the Raj period (the title should probably have been Education in the Punjab during the British Raj).

• 26 February 2012 :Bong said Zebdee responds edit commentary "what should we do about ITF"

1. I think what's left should probably be tagged for speedy deletion reason CSD:A3, as there is literally no content left. I'll also give him another warning about copyright.

• Sitush asks :And what should we do with an article that is now pretty much empty ...
• Bong Said Zebdee the admin offers the solution I think what's left should probably be tagged for speedy deletion reason CSD:A3, as there is literally no content left
• And then presto the article gets deleted same day 26th Feb for as there is literally no content left as the admin Bong said Zebdee declares .

Now on the issue of Copyright violation :

If the article had 6 valid citations from reliable sources but no parenthesis for quotes . The natural course for Good Faith and a collaborative spirit ...your competence with over 50000 wikipedia edits and Wikipedia etiquette , would have offerd the folowing options to you

1. Ask for paraphrasing on these quotes on the talk page
2. Paraphrase them yourself , as you have done on scores of pages

Next Lets look at this message I posted 22ND where you posted another threat on my page to get me blocked .User talk:Intothefire#James Mill Article . We provide quotes and citation from the same book , author ISBN number , but your quote carries parenthesis . What do you do .... in-spite of knowing the Weblink for the book you have used , you delete my edit .....and post a threat on my talk page .

So an article is proposed for deletion in one day....26th of FEB .... Deleted the same day ....Content and citations deleted making it a lame article ...now fit for deletion ....then discuss and post simultaneous warnings , take no steps to improve collaborate , pass rude comments . I am not the one fighting ..... I am opposing your groups premeditated efforts to ban block other editors .

COPYRIGHT needs to be respected off course but Wikipedia is a resource that uses other resources ... so to that extent there is no original content and anything and everything is in a sense borrowed from other sources . If having the means and knowledge to paraphrase or add parenthesis or ask for repair is too much for you two .......nay instead it becomes a means to push for a ban , block another editor ...it speaks volumes for how you engage with other editors . So that I dont draw other editors into this I need not take names ...but your group is up to no good with many editors apart from the editor named above in this discussion . There are several other articles which need this detailed discussion with diffs hereon Intothefire (talk) 18:01, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

• Hi Intothefire, you have been told this is the wrong forum to complain about the behaviour of other editors, so if you want any redress you will need to take it to somewhere like WP:ANI. I won't argue with you here, and no action is going to be taken as a result of this discussion. -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 18:18, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Education, statewise

With reference to this above topic i have a question. For standardization, why dont we have statewise topics for all states in India? I see that many of them have it. But few small states have some paragraphs included in their state articles itself. Wont it be better to break them apart? Thus also giving scope for expansion. Eg. Education in Maharashtra can surely have its own seperate article. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 13:30, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Gujarat#Economy

The Economy section in Gujarat is pretty messed up and is not 'to the point', anyone interested in economics? Help is needed.--kondi ^{talk/contribs} 19:55, 27 February 2012 (UTC)

Village article name

I kept out of the row last year re: village article names (Bogdan N was involved). Being clueless, could someone please look at the history for Madha, India and fix if appropriate - Madha, Hisar seems a more reasonable name but I do not want to start another move war. - Sitush (talk) 00:14, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

Y Done by utcursch. Thanks. - Sitush (talk) 18:07, 28 February 2012 (UTC)

GLAM COTM

Dear all, since we have our first GLAM collaboration started now at the WP:GLAM/CM I was wondering if someone could help me start a GLAM COTM. We have identified 4 articles to begin with and two of them are high on importance. Any thoughts on this? Noopur28 (talk) 05:02, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

I would recommend folding this into WP:INCOTM as a third topic choice for the month where the subject is selected solely from a GLAM point of view. AshLin (talk) 10:58, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Question re proposed merge.

Hi, I was recently patrolling the Articles to be merged backlog for WikiProject Merge, and I came across the proposed merger of Aaladikkumulai with Aladikkumulai. The nominator didn't start a discussion for the merge, and normally in that case, I just remove the tags if it's been long enough. On this occasion, it seems likely that the articles are duplicates, but not likely enough for me to merge WP:BOLDly. I am bringing this here because I think subject knowledge is needed to be sure that the articles are duplicates, and the pages themselves are not very active. I am willing to carry out the merge if we can agree here that it's necessary. Quasihuman | Talk 11:20, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Yes, They are duplicates. The correct spelling for the village is Aladikkumulai as per the census of India --Anbu121 (talk me) 12:40, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll go ahead and merge them then. Quasihuman | Talk 14:11, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

INCOTM - Report for February 2012

Hello Everyone!

It's time to review the WP:INCOTM for the month of February 2012.

Last month, Dance in India was the only article chosen for the INCOTM.

During the period under question, Dance in India had 208 edits from 20 contributors. This is quite good compared to the last month's COTM - Premchand which had 133 edits from 17 contributors. This months COTM was a success in my eyes as the following improvements were seen-

• Lede was improved and expanded.
• Size - increased from 1256 words to 1566 words (although this appears less it is still significant, see the reason below).
• The article was restructured and visually appears better now.
• Origin of dance, folk and tribal dance forms & contemporary dance were the new sections added.
• Referencing improved from 2 to 38 (very good progress indeed in this aspect).
• Images went up from one to five.
• Sub-sections were made for the classical dance section.
• Linking, grammar and other minor things were also improved.

However,

• There was no drastic increase in the size of article as it increased just by 1.25 times. This was because while new sections were added, old sections like Ottan Tullal, Dasi Assam and Modern day television shows were removed under WP:UNDUE. That reduced the article length substantially.
• More sections need to be added to the classical dance - one para per each of the main classical dance forms.
• Although the referencing has been improved to a great extent, there are still some citation needed tags present.

The top four editors of Dance in India for the month of February 2012 were:

1. Hisham - 51 edits
2. Nitika.t - 46 edits
3. Noopur28 - 29 edits
4. Karthikndr - 11 edits

To encourage contribution, they have been awarded a Barnstar for taking time and effort to participate. Special thanks to Karthikndr for adding the references and helping in removing the refimprove tag just a day before the COTM was about to terminate. Also, thanks to AroundTheGlobe for adding images to the article. Wikilove was sent to AroundTheGlobe for the same.

We still need more work to be done on Dance in India as it is one of the highest visibility articles of the WikiProject - it gets 500 to 600 pageviews per day!

GA/FA of the month

As far as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi goes, there were 213 edits with the major contributors being AshLin, Hisham, Rjensen and Dav subrajathan.357. Wikilove has been sent to motivate them to continue the long struggle.

The referencing is still being carefully weeded. It has been completely moved to cite templates now. A lot of dud references have been detected and replaced. In some cases what the reference was saying had no bearing to the text and was replaced. Preference was given to references which are verifiable online. Referencing continues because the article is a mixture of cite & Harvard referencing styles.

It was suggested we go in for one of three models of referencing -

• Direct referencing with Footnotes section & no bibliography
• Shortened references with Bibliography at the end.
• Harvard referencing.

It has been decided to move it to shortened urls/Bibliography model as the bibliography already exists and the Harvard referencing was in minority. Hopefully that once this ends, the GA proper can begin. The time taken for all this underlines the great importance of accurate referencing and choosing reliable sources.

Thank you all for contributing to this month’s INCOTM. Hoping for an even better response for the next COTM - APJ Abdul Kalam.

Cheers! BPositive (talk) 18:56, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

• Thanks for the report BPositive. This is a discussion board/noticeboard to catch editors attention for something important, the next time you put a report, would you please mind doing it on the INCOTM talk page? Thanks, Around The Globe^{सत्यमेव जयते} 05:44, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

• Noted. The next time onwards, Coordinator is requested that both the Nomination & Reports be on the talk page of INCOTM with only a short notice here informing of the nominations, report here etc. Traffic is sure building up on this page. AshLin (talk) 06:43, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

• Sure. No problem. --BPositive (talk) 08:33, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Indian independence activists

I've just noticed that a lot of entries at Indian independence activists are unlinked and unsourced. If anyone can provide some sources, that would be great - otherwise, I think they should be removed. -- Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 08:53, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Keep with "citation needed" tags. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 15:57, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant

Massive edit war going on in Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. I request some experienced editors to initiate some structured disussions. --Anbu121 (talk me) 09:49, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks Anbu121 for bringing up the matter here. As a new user, I was advised to come here to discuss this in more detail by the TeaHouse. Could someone from the community take a look at Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. I think the article is quite biased and not maintainable in light of the recent events and disclosures on the topic, but the user insists on reverting the changes completely without discussing the matter on the talk page. Thanks for your help. Nashtam (talk) 15:39, 2 March 2012 (UTC)

A user (talk to him) is adding all biased texts and reverting the articles. This user has registered only to edit Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant page. Its really wrong and unethical. Is there a way to mark him as spam? — Preceding unsigned comment added by AMuraliKumar (talk • contribs) 01:38, 5 March 2012‎ (UTC)

Thanks for noticing the unfair editing that has been going on AMuraliKumar. I just got another "last warning" that I will be banned without further notice for "vandalisation" on Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. I have been waiting to discuss the matter in a fair manner on the talk page for more than four days now with no response from the people concerned. Request experienced Indian users for advice on how to proceed in this matter. Nashtam (talk) 05:55, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Feedback on Madhya Pradesh maps

User:Yann has asked for input from the community at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Indian_maps#Location_maps_for_MP_districts. Would some one please oblige? AshLin (talk) 17:46, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Street children in India

I am currently working on creating an article titled Street children in India. Though street children are a large (estimates are over 100,000) and very disadvantaged part of the Indian population, there is no mention of them anywhere either on the articles for India or poverty in India. Researchers have noted that the circumstances in which street children live are unique from other children in poverty and they must be given their own space in policy. Their absence from pages about India, especially poverty in India, is not merited; they need to be included, especially since the independence of street children puts them more at risk than children in poverty that live with their families. When Street children in India is completed, I plan to place a link for it on the India article. On the poverty in India article, I will write a paragraph or two about street children in an appropriate section and link my article.

I would love feedback and suggestions from anyone who is willing to read my article draft when I post it in my Sandbox. (I’ll add the link here when it is completed). KiaraDouds (talk) 21:55, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

You can use some of the photographs from commons:Category:Street children in India. utcursch | talk 05:29, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Depiction of India administered territories in the map of China

The dispute is over the factual depiction of PRC territories on the article on China. It involves territories currently administered by the Republic of India and the Republic of Taiwan and hence I felt pertinent to post here to attract attention of those interested in contributing to the discussion on Talk:China. — Nearly Headless Nick {C} 21:14, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

2 games: "Kho Kho" and "Ghoda Hai Jo Maar Khaye (The Horse Who Will Beaten)"

An article on some children's games includes a section on "Kho Kho" and a section on "Ghoda Hai Jo Maar Khaye (The Horse Who Will Beaten)". I started copyediting Ghoda Hai Jo Maar Khaye but I don't understand some of the rules. Can somebody who's familiar with the game please rewrite some of the sentences? Also both games need references. Cloveapple (talk) 17:20, 6 March 2012 (UTC)

"Ghoda Hai Jo Maar Khaye" looks like a non-notable (if not entirely made-up) thing to me. Never heard of such a game. It should probably be just removed from the article. utcursch | talk 11:50, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Agree with Utcursch. -Animeshkulkarni (talk) 12:14, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Although Kho Kho is similar in format, I don't think it should be included in a children's game article. Kho Kho is an international game played by nearly 7 countries. --Anbu121 (talk me) 12:25, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for explaining that to me. As I live on the other side of the ocean I had not heard of Kho kho before. I see that Kho kho has an entire article so I'll take it out of the children's game article and leave a note on the children's article talk page pointing to this discussion.

I'll mark "Ghoda Hai Jo Maar Khaye" as citation needed and remove it if nobody shows that it's real. Cloveapple (talk) 17:12, 7 March 2012 (UTC)

I think that this is an Indian version of dodgeball. Have seen it play once in Mumbai under that name. Don't have references and don't think its notable, though. Prad2609 (talk) 07:54, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Tag and Assess 2012 - Status update

The Tag & Assess Drive 2012 has been a phenomenal success so far achieving 8706 assessments (including quality and importance) in a span of 10 days. The overall theme is to achieve

• Quality assessments for unassessed WP India articles.
• Adding importance missed during previous assessment.
• Bringing more articles into the scope of the project and subject them to assessment.

Statistics of the initial and recent progress

Date & time	Total articles in the project	Articles remaining	Assessed on this day	Running total
4 March 2012, 0830 hrs	95,014	60,037	540	3,309
10 March 2012, 0330 hrs	95,981	56,596	606	8,706

While numbers are indicative of the progress, the co-ordinators are ensuring quality of assessment with frequent pulse checks. There has been enthusiastic participation from all the 21 participants and we profusely thank all the participants involved. The drive is still open and we encourage participants from WP India to enroll themselves.
AshLin (talk) and ssriram_mt (talk).

Rape in Indian-administered Kashmir

Sir people are removing rape by militants from Rape in Indian-administered Kashmir. Please advice what to do? Awaaz-e-Kashmir (talk) 18:22, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Although I started discussion on talk page and moderator Mr. TopGun now threatens to block me. Mr. NerosRevenge and Mr. TopGun have removed my additions 3 times

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rape_in_Indian-administered_Kashmir&diff=481191511&oldid=481190190
• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rape_in_Indian-administered_Kashmir&diff=481194805&oldid=481192937
• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rape_in_Indian-administered_Kashmir&diff=481196393&oldid=481196296

Mr. TopGun has advised me to 'post a request for help at a relevant noticeboard' on my talk page so I am posting request here. Please tell me if there is other relevant noticeboard. Please help me. Awaaz-e-Kashmir (talk) 19:29, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

The two editors, Awaaz-e-Kashmir and Nero's Revenge are up for edit-warring. I have partly cleaned up the article but there seems to a lot of such hate oriented articles coming up. I advise all WikiProject members to be alert and keep the WikiProject clean while upholding all the values and methods of Wikipedia. AshLin (talk) 05:07, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Dear ashlin it is understandable you have been hurt by the reality of rape in occupied kashmir but that does not it is a "hate" article I suggest if you believe in "values" than such incidences of rape should be revealed NerosRevenge (talk) 08:09, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Outreach Newsletter

The newsletter of WP:India project outreach department did not go out in the whole of 2011. Help is invited from members of WP:India towards the April 2012 newsletter. If you have suggestion/tips, please do leave them on the talk page. Please WP:BE BOLD and contribute to the edition. Prad2609 (talk) 07:49, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Four more volunteers for coordinating WikiProject India!

I would like to inform the broad community of glad tidings - we have a number of volunteers who have agreed to coordinate WikiProjects. These are:

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Hinduism - User:Redtigerxyz.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian cinema - User:Vensatry.
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Mumbai - User:Karthikndr.
• Welcoming Newbies to the WikiProject initiative - User:Debastein (based on his Teahouse participation).

We welcome them to their new responsibilities and they are now proud members of a select club indeed - people who have publicly volunteered to look after an area of responsibility on WikiProject India.

Please welcome them on their talk pages.

They join User:BPositive (WP:INCOTM), User:Kondicherry (Wikipedia:WikiProject Gujarat) & ssriram_mt (Tag & Assess 2012).

Redtigerxyz has asked for fellow co-coordinators for WikiProject Hinduism, if any one is willing and forthcoming.

We would like to intimate readers that we are constantly looking for editors to help with the various departments and task forces. There are more than seventy more areas needing looking after. And if the project you are interested in already has one, welcome to it - we need lots of dedicated volunteers per department or task force not just one.

AshLin (talk) 04:46, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Updates from India Program Team

This is the first post from the India Program team regarding the team. I have been posting updates on the various mailing lists - but am acutely aware that the majority of our community is on village pumps or project pages and hence this post. Do excuse me for posting something which is not solely focused on this project, but the work we are doing has learnings that you might find useful for your project. Here are 5 important links that you might find useful

• There is an India Program page on meta - which has links to a number of important workstreams (on the right of the page)
• Here is your India Program team. Feel free to reach out for any help or to provide any suggestion - or just to say hello!
• I submitted the following mid-year report to the community on January 15th 2011 - outlining the activities for 2011 and the priorities for 2012. Strictly speaking, this wasn't a mid-year report because it covered all of 2011, but going forward, I intend to make it a half-yearly affair. Please add your comments or suggestions here, or below this post.
• I have recently started monthly updates. The monthly update for February is available here. Please add your comments or suggestion here. The areas of emphasis for March are here. Please add your comments or here. This is really useful for us to ensure that we are doing what you need most.
• I have also started a new tab on the India Program page for Learnings, called Gyan. I think it is going to be a pretty cool place for us to put together a whole host of learnings, lessons, heartbreaks, Eureka moments and inspirations - gathered from all over the community. Stay tuned for more!
• One of the essential things that India Program needs to constantly work out is keeping our community informed of the work that we are doing - so that this work is clearer but also to help cross-pollinate ideas amongst a wider set of community members who might not have been engaged on specific village pump / talk page discussion or involved in particular activities (e.g. outreach events) or wikiprojects. I propose to have a fortnightly IRC for the community with India Program. (For those who are not familiar with IRC, it is an Internet messaging system similar to a regular chat room. It's very simple to use and you can join in by clicking on the following link. This would be done on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of every month at 9pm IST (which is GMT + 0530) - THOUGH NOT THIS MONTH - BECAUSE I HAVE MISSED THE TIMELINE. Just for March, we will do it on March 15th and March 29th (both at 9pm IST which is GMT + 0530). I suggest that these chats are focused on specific work streams. As with many community meet-ups - folks will give time to attend a meet-up or participate in an IRC only if there is a topic of relevance to them. Therefore, we will do one IRC on Indic languages and one on Outreach & Communications. The March 15th one will be focused on Indic Languages and the one on March 29th will be on Outreach & Communications. (All IRCs will start with a re-cap of India Programs activities.) There is quite a bit of overlap on these topics - so feel free to join both. Please do also invite anyone who is interested to know more about India Program or - even more importantly - interact with fellow Wikimedians. As always, the logs will be put up on meta for the benefit of those who can't attend and for the record.

Please feel free to translate this post for the benefit of the larger audience. In fact, I'd be really grateful if you did!

Hisham (talk) 03:39, 12 March 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for informing the community, Hisham. AshLin (talk) 04:49, 12 March 2012 (UTC)