User talk:Abecedare

Hinduism: Thanks for you work on the Hinduism article. I agreed with most of your edits. You have a good sense for wording and style. Thank you also for making edits only after considering the overall organization--some people edit one part without considering it's effect on other parts. One suggestion: Be careful not to make too many changes all at once. There are a lot of debates on the discussion page of this article. If you change too many things too fast, then if other editors disagree with just a few of your edits, they may revert all of them. Thanks again for your hard work! HeBhagawan 16:52, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

		The Exceptional Newcomer Award
		I, HeBhagawan, present you with this award for your outstanding contributions to Hinduism. This award is meant to recognize your good editing decisions, and above all your willingness to work cooperatively with others. Congratulations!

Hinduism

Welcome to WikiProject Hinduism

WikiProject Hinduism — a collaborative effort to improve articles about Hinduism Discussion board — a page for centralised Hinduism-related discussion Notice board — contains the latest Hinduism-related announcements Hindu Wikipedians — Wikipedians who have identified themselves as Hindus Portal — a portal linking to key Hinduism-related articles, images, and categories Workgroups — projects with a more specific scopes For more links, go to the project's navigation template.

--D-Boy 16:21, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

lit

Hi Abe, Good work on the copyediting. I won't mention all the things I do like, b/c there are so many, but here's one I don't like: I think it is a bad idea to add "lit." to every translation of a word. There are several reasons I think it's a bad idea:

1. It adds length to the article
2. It is not necessary--there is no danger of a reader misunderstanding what the function of the word in parentheses following a foreign word it.
3. It is by no means a universal convention in English writing. Everybody understands it, but not everybody uses it (I'm talking about professional publications here).
4. The translation of the word is not always literal, as "lit." implies. Sometimes it is a loose translation provided for purposes of clarity. For example, the article translates "yoga" as "path." The literal meaning of yoga is "joining." But since it is more commonly used to mean "path," that is the translation we have given (this word comes to mind since I was discussing it with SaivaSuj, but there are more examples).

Do you agree? HeBhagawan 17:41, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Definitely! I personally don't like the term either, but somehow I formed the impression that that was the convention being used on the page, and therefore added it for consistency. Looking back at the page, I see that my impression was incorrect and perhaps a carry-over from some other wikipedia page (no hope of tracing the source now ! :-) ). So please edit out those pesky "lit."s; or I'll do so myself later in the day.

By the way, is it preferable to reply to your (and others') talk messages on their or my talk pages. I prefer the latter, since it allows other readers to follow the thread of the conversation; but nothing is written in stone, especially on wikipedia Abecedare 17:53, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

It's better to reply on the talk page of the person you want to hear your message. I'm pretty busy at the momemt, so I'm sorry I can't comment more extensively on the other stuff on the Hinduism page. I will comment when I can. Thanks for all your hard work! HeBhagawan 01:33, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

I am sorry, I have not gone through the entire discussion on Bhakti Yoga etc.

I am sorry, I have not gone through the entire discussion on Bhakti Yoga etc. It's night here and too tired to read entire discussion today.

According to Geeta, there are only 3 Yogas, Bhakti, Jnan & Karma. I have argued that placing Raja Yoga with these 3 is incorrect. Raj Yog is a session bound method to meditate and to me, Raj Yog is covered in Jnan Yoga as the end-result is acquiring Jnan.

Bhakti, Jnan and Karma are way of life (Dharma as said by you or Saiva_sujit) where as Raj Yoga is a method to discipline mind, body and intellect for a session.

I do not know, whether this will help you. swadhyayee 16:37, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Pl. don't try to support gross wrong and un-holy in the name of Wikipedia policy.

I wonder how can you place grossly wrong and un-holy links on talk pages. Why do you support the subversive method on creating prejudices for Hinduism. It's not right on your part as a good editor. swadhyayee 08:00, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Picture

Oh...I was glad I got some feed back on it! Thanks, I replaced the Rama picture with the Krishna picture since the Rama pic did not have a known copy right info. I am glad someone likes it.__Seadog ^♪ 19:33, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Your article

I will gladly help in the article, It does need some cats and fixings but I think it will look nice. Cheers.__Seadog ^♪ 20:43, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes in fact next week I may web-search around for some usefull info and try to work on it. Also you can search around the commons for some good pics!__Seadog ^♪ 20:53, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Very good job with the new article that you have created. I added some info on the conch section. Please feel free to take a look.__Seadog ^♪ 02:15, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Reply

Bakaman: Can you please let me know why my edit was incorrect ? I don't have any objection to mentioning the 'Upanishads' in the introduction - I just think it is incorrect to mention the vedas and then say that " other scriptures include Upanishads". Thanks. Abecedare 03:21, 27 November 2006 (UTC) (This message was originally posted on Bakatalk)

Both are completely separate works. Also the user you reverted (I did look at the diff by the way) was the user who got the article to FA status in the first place.Bakaman _Bakatalk 03:23, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I am confused now, since the Upanishad article begins with "The Upanishads are part of the Vedas and form the Hindu scriptures which primarily discuss philosophy, meditation and nature of God; they form the core spiritual thought of Vedantic Hinduism." and the Hinduism page also says "The Upaniṣhads constitute a major portion of the Jnāna Kānda and contain the bulk of the Vedas philosophical and mystical teachings."

So which is true ?

(An aside: by my revert I was simply expressing my opinion on the edit, and not any disrespect towards the editor) Abecedare 03:32, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree nothing was meant by you toward the editor. I understand you are new to the Hinduism articles, and my edit summary was probably out of place. The beginning of the upanisad article is a contradiction. The second statement you listed above does not necessarily suggest that it is a part per se, merely that it is commentary and embellishment of the vedas.Bakaman _Bakatalk 04:41, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Hey all... several years ago, I was a mainstay in Wikipedia, but eventually left after I saw all the hard work that a few dedicated writers and I did (getting Hinduism to FA status) completely destroyed. Occasionally, in spite of myself, I take a look and add my two cents.

If I had the will, I would dive headfirst into a complete overhaul of this page. But regarding the Upanishads thing, here's the deal.

The Vedas are four in number, the Rk, Yajur, Sama and Atharva. By all accounts, they were composed and passed on orally from around 2000 BCE and written down some time later in the 2nd millenium BCE. The oldest Upanishads (Brhadaranyaka and Chandogya) were written, at the earliest, around 1000 BCE, though maybe a tad bit later. The bulwark scriptures for the Vedanta (or end/essence of Veda), they were conceived of as commentaries (as Bakaman has pointed out) and embellishments of the Vedas. However, it is evident that a clear break in philosophy and new developments in ideas was witnessed. The development of at best implicitly or barely mentioned ideas (like dharma, karma, atman, brahman, yoga, sadhana) and the stress on a very Luther-like break from the mediation of spiritual growth by the priestly class was first truly witnessed in the Upanishads. Thus, while they have been classified as 'part of the Vedas', from a scholastic and historical perspective, they form a distinct set of scriptures. That's why I added them as separate, since the first two or three paragraphs of the article should be powerful but attempt to be, in their brevity, a thorough recap of things most important to Hinduism en generale. If the consensus among active editors/writers is that the reference stays, great, or that it goes, fine. I don't think, considering the horrific bloating of the article, that it would make a big difference either way. --LordSuryaofShropshire 22:42, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

merge

you can go ahead and merge it yourself.--D-Boy 18:30, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

It usually depends how popular or controvesial the article is.--D-Boy 18:46, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

If you go to Hindu noticeboard, there's more stuff to merge if you want.--D-Boy 01:19, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for keeping an eye on Sean Bell

I'm suprised the page hasn't gotten more attention, but at least 2 people are watching it. Natalie 17:28, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I was amazed that the initial page was so good. It only came to my attention through a "see also" link on Amadou Diallo, which I have watchlisted, but it's ridiculously POV, which is incredible for such a contoversial event. You may want to look at the talk page - I suggested moving it to a different title - perhaps you have an opinion. Natalie 18:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

I have started..

I have started naming my edit summaries. swadhyayee 03:52, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Describing at edit summary place. swadhyayee 05:26, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

I have noticed what you say but it's not supposed to show as "m" when description for edit is provided. Seems to be some technical fault. swadhyayee 05:28, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

I know. My preferential settings were to give me an alert when I forget to describe the edit summary. By selecting this, the edit does not take place at 1st instant. If, you do not describe the edit summary for the 2nd time, it edits with "m". Now you can see, inspite of edit description, "m" reflects so I presume it to be technical fault. My watchlist also not show all pages kept under watch even if they are edited. I ignore such things. It's better to ignore and accept rather than making a fuss about. swadhyayee 06:02, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

DYK

On 1 December, 2006, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Hindu Iconography, which you created. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the "Did you know?" talk page.

(on behalf of Sandstein) BigHaz - Schreit mich an 07:40, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Hindu iconography

Thanks for your message. I spotted the article you had started from a picture on the main Wiki homepage (DYK section) this morning. It's coming along nicely :-) Ys, Gouranga(UK) 16:35, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Good work

Good job sniffing out those references for a new comer you have shown a very good grasp of wikipedia policy. Keep it up. Also I originally deleted that statment on the article about 15 minutes ago but then he added them again with references but as you pointed out the refs are not reliable for the article. Once again keep up the good work.__Seadog ^♪ 05:58, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Yeah basically that is correct that the policy is common sense. In fact there is a policy on it here. Cheers!__Seadog ^♪ 06:16, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

The comment about Psychology is what one of the HSS profs, Milind Malshe said to me in the class. And its not exactly true of some psychologists that psychological object of study is not subjective; many believe otherwise. After all, in non S&Tech subjects, 2 + 2 is not always 4. Cygnus_hansa 07:13, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

Monotheism, polytheism ...

Hi, good work on changing the sentence but we now need a new reference! I don't think Bhaskarananda said that in his "Essentials of Hinduism." Gizza^{Chat ©} 22:56, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

That's alright. A link I guess is enough. Someone might just ask for it to be referenced in our next FAC. But we'll tell them. Gizza^{Chat ©} 23:17, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Eventually it will become a FA again. If it the article doesn't improve and become close to FA quality soon I will start praying to Lord Ganesha who will remove all the obstacles :) Gizza^{Chat ©} 23:26, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

response to COU

response is here.Bakaman 15:54, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

the editor

Namasteji. We must be thinking in harmony ! ॐ नमःशिवाय _{Śaiva Sujīt} सुजीत ॐ 21:17, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Well done Abecedare

I've never given any barnstars to anyone :D

		The Barnstar of Diligence
		This is for your consistency with high quality and frequent edits on the Hinduism article!

ॐ नमःशिवाय _{Śaiva Sujīt} सुजीत ॐ 08:01, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Take a look at WP:BS :) ॐ नमःशिवाय _{Śaiva Sujīt} सुजीत ॐ 23:13, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Note to Talk:Hinduism participants

Namaste. You may have been involved in a discussion on Talk:Hinduism recently moved to The Hinduism notice board. If you wish to continue said topics please discuss on the noticeboard. Also please add WP:HNB to your watchlist, so we can help out all the WP:HINDU editors when needed. Thanks.Bakaman 05:29, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Question

Yeah sure I will see what I can do. But would you like them like they used to be, or do you like them how they are now? Cheers! — Seadog_MS 19:51, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Thanks, I have read your message.

Thanks, I have read your message, have to go out now. Will try to understand the transliteration part and write back. Thanks once again. swadhyayee 03:10, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

Category

The only reason for placing them in that category was that they were followers of Sathya Sai Baba. Kkrystian^talk 23:38 (UTC+1) 23 Dec 2006

Abecedare, the proof that the people who I added to the Category:Famous followers od Sathya Sai Baba is described in either: 1) the Sathya Sai Baba article 2) the history of the Sathya Sai Baba article (by SSS108) 3) the articles about these people. I think there is nothing wrong with having a category page with famous followers of Sathya Sai Baba. If there can be a category page with famous Muslims (Category:Muslims) than I see no reason why there shouldn't be a category page with famous followers of Sathya Sai Baba. Kkrystian 11:14 (UTC+1) 26 December 2006

Thanks as well. Kkrystian 14:10 (UTC+1) 28 Dec 2006

POTA

Aye mate!

I saw your recent editsto POTA. Well AFAIK the act was repealed by curent govt way back in 2004! अमेय आर्यन DaBrood^© 22:51, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Hinduism

Its under attack from a vandal ip address 84.xx . Do watch the page please.Bakaman 17:54, 26 December 2006 (UTC)

Water fuel cell

Nice, much more than I could have done. Please see User talk:Femto#Water fuel cell, I think this applies to you as well! Wonderful how taking turns is working. Femto 13:03, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

thanks

I noticed you hung around on WP:PINQ a bit. If you've seen WT:INB or Portal:India I'm envisioning the Hinduism project being as well organized as those pages.Bakaman 23:30, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Vegetarianism

It's looking better, I think. Regards, deeptrivia (talk) 22:01, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

In Use

Thanks man... I appreciate the understanding.--68.173.46.79 01:05, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks

for the thumbs up and the New Year greeting. User:Nobleeagle has given us a boost by committing himself to the page. Aup. and Swad. who occasionally drifted away from the article have both improved and discuss non-article related stuff at HNB, as should be the case. Things appear to be much better now. In a month or so, I'll have no time at all for Wikipedia so hopefully it will become FA or close to FA by then. Btw, are you a Hindu or an Abecedarian (or something else)? Just curious. Gizza^{Chat ©} 05:16, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Hindu dharma

I agree with your first 2 proposals. either of them are satisfying.--D-Boy 09:12, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

Hinduism

The point is that that short encyclopedia entry on Encyclopedia Britannica doesn't cite any sources (so we don't know where the authors of it got the information from). Moreover, saying that Hinduism is polytheistic is too far-fetched a statement. The Gita, Vedas (etc.) do not mention in any palce that there are many gods (rather the opposite - that there is only one God) so we cannot say that Hinduism is polytheistic. Kkrystian 17:39 (UTC+1) 3 January 2007

By the way, I have a doubt relating to the matter we are discussing - whether Hinduism is monotheistic or polytheistic. Could you please explain to me what is the difference between ancient Greeks worshipping Apollo as the god of music, Dionisis as the god of wine (etc.) and the Hindus worshipping Agni as the god of fire, Vayu as the god of wind (etc.) I would be very grateful if you explained it to me. Thanks in advance. User:Kkrystian 19:27 (UTC+1) 3 Jan 2007

I think although the religious beliefs of Hindus are neither monolithic or static we can state definetly whether Hinduism is monotheistic, polytheistic (etc.) basing on what the Vedas, Shastras, Gita (etc.) say. Do you agree with me? Kkrystian 15:37 (UTC+1) 5 Jan 2007

Great job you're doing on Hinduism

Just wanted to thank you for your great work on the Hinduism article. It's a big complicated article, with alot of complicated opinions on which way it should go. You're doing a great job at helping to move it in the right direction. At some point I hope to get back there and help. Thanks, ॐ Priyanath talk 02:29, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi Abecedare, Happy new year to you, I was on vacation all these days, thank you for your edits on Taittiriya.

Lokesh 2000 12:09, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Hinduism GA, reply

Hi. I am just happy to promote to GA. It is just fair, because the article has been eligible for GA status for a while. But I didn't want to review it for the GA project, because I was an advocate for HeBhagawan, an editor on the page.

I already provided some suggestions at Talk:Hinduism/Archive 13. There you also can see that my involvement was controversial at the time.

Basically I wanted to shorten the article. The same suggestions have been made again at Talk:Hinduism#Length. It's not too difficult to achieve, actually... just involves a sturdy copyediting hand...

Fred-Chess 18:35, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

For you

File:GandhiStatueInUnionSquareNYC.jpg

Sincere wishes for your happiness. -- User:RyanFreisling @ 07:00, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

It's a nice one, but I miss the optical viewfinder from my DSC-93. Staring at an LCD screen on a bright spring day is obnoxious. -- User:RyanFreisling @ 07:07, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Just chiming in again - Thanks for posting your views and the Britannica article again. While some of us are debating and learning a lot from one another, I'm finding more and more evidence to suggest that at least one of the editors on the debate page may not be interested in conducting a good faith debate. It's troubling, but it's inspiring as well. The more concern I have that information is being suppressed, the more I'll be doing research to better inform these articles and improve/protect WP. Have a great night. -- User:RyanFreisling @ 04:13, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Will keep you posted on my research. -- User:RyanFreisling @ 04:35, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks - I too am most grateful for your kindness and conviviality. Whichever way the debate goes, if it improves WP and helps people learn just a little better to avoid attacking one another, I'll continue to be grateful for the opportunity to have participated at all. -- User:RyanFreisling @ 05:05, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Defensive

I have every reason to be defensive because it took all of about 24 hours for the editors to remove almost all the content under the old title because it offended someone. Of course no one would tell me what they found offensive, they would just remove big pieces of text and rewrite it in ludicrous fashion.--Filll 23:31, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

As I have said before, it took very little time for the entire article to disappear. This is frustrating. Two or three other editors had warned me that editing articles having anything to do with Hinduism was hopeless and I start to understand. At least this educational. But it will not take very much more for me to ask for the article to be deleted because it is clearly much too sensitive a topic for too many people. It is absolutely amazing to me, since I have gone to school with many Indians, and have been good friends with them, but the attitudes I am witnessing here just astound me. I will maybe have to change the name again, or move the entire content into an article about Christian creationists so it can be defended properly. I dont want to do that, but I might have to. --Filll 00:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I do not claim a conspiracy and I would welcome collaborators who are constructive and do not just remove things instead of correcting them or putting weasel words in or finding contrary references that dispute the references I have turned up. I do not know how much of the history you looked at, and I will grant you there might have been some mistakes, but it is better to edit and correct the mistakes rather than just remove them. So I tried to understand what was going on so I could try to write a less offensive version. I have no idea what Hindutva is, and I did not realize that some of what I was reading was essentially a war between different political parties, different castes, different groups etc. So I am trying to avoid that but still indicate that there are some who claim to be hindus or draw some information from vedic scriptures to invalidate evolution (the modern synthesis called NeoDarwinism), and some who are charged with behaving like western creationists for a variety of reasons and whose writing sure looks like western creationist literature to me.I do not want to step on any toes. I do not want to imply that all hindus believe this stuff. But that is what I was beaten badly with before. etc etc. --Filll 00:31, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

So what was offensive about a picture of the murti Ganesh? I liked that picture. I want more pictures but I dont want to offend anyone.--Filll 01:05, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Well I removed all references to Hindutva. Many references call it a Hindu supremacy movement (many people view black power movements in the US as black supremacy movements, and there certainly exist black supremacists, but not all black civil rights activists are supremacists definitely). But I will not mention that at all even though it is dozens of references. I do not want to get into much more than some anti-science or pseudoscience beliefs that are reminiscent of western creationism, point out some of the stories in some of the vedic scriptures that appear to not agree with Darwins theory of evolution, and talk about the ISKCON antievolutionists. All with references. Which might be complete nonsense but at least they exist. Do you have any answer to the Murti ganesh question? --Filll 01:40, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

My aim is not to be inoffensive, but rather to be factual and on topic.

Well I am quite nervous about offending. I know what the references say. But it appears that everyone disagrees with them and/or is offended by them.--Filll 05:05, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

However it is not sufficient to present, "anti-science or pseudoscience beliefs that are reminiscent of western creationism" in this article. Abecedare 01:49, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

"That is what the references say. If you have references that say the contrary, please produce them so they can be incorporated". I could be more blatant and quote directly from the articles, but I am trying to make it as mild as I can. Better ? --Filll 05:05, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

That is what the references say. If you have references that say the contrary, please produce them so they can be incorporated.-Filll 02:07, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for moving that. As you can see from the history, that was not my last move or choice of title. I am glad finally that people are being productive and turning up great references that I could not have found easily myself. If we can pull together instead of at cross-purposes, a much better article will result and be more balanced.--Filll 18:00, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Hinduism and creationism

I have not deleted anything (I am not that sort of person, I debate fairly), where did you get that. I take note of your advice. Let us see how the article developes. Aupmanyav 17:58, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

No you have not deleted anything and I really appreciate that. If one looks at the history, unfortunately, many people did delete things with no explanation or minimal explanation in the first 24 hours. And that was frustrating because obviously people disagreed, but they did not give an alternative wording, contrary references, etc that could be used to flesh out the article and make it balanced.--Filll 18:02, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that is exactly what I too was referencing. Although I don't disagree with the changes the editors made to the earlier version, the same changes could have been made more cooperative. Abecedare 18:09, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I only disagree with deletion with no explanation. So if the Ganesh Murti is offensive to some, I understand and I am glad to have it removed. I had it there only because I personally find it very appealing and interesting. I have incorporated 3 of the references you thoughtfully dug up now with a couple of new sections and some new wording, and a couple of the previous references another editor found. I do not seem to be able to access the study article here about differing student attitudes in the Phillipines but maybe we can find something similar or get access to it eventually. I want to explore ALL the ways that different versions of creationism impact and interact with Hindus and Hinduism. I wonder if we can find references to the teaching of evolution in Pakistani public schools? I have looked a little and so far I am coming up empty, although my Pakistani friends have assured me this is true. Interestingly, the Pakistani Academy of Sciences (I might have that name wrong) disagrees with this policy and has issued statements supporting evolution. So I am at a bit of a loss.-- Filll 19:13, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I dont mind it because it summarizes the article topic a bit better (although it still might give offense to some which I want to prevent if possible) however I would be more happy if we could get the words Hinduism and creationism in that order closer to the start of the first sentence somehow. I gave it a try but I will admit that it does not really cover the topic quite as well as yours. On the other hand, mine might not offend some who are a bit sensitive. So ??? I am not sure what to do but hopefully we can think og fomsething. --Filll 02:39, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I personally do not care if the reader has to read 3 sentences instead of 1 to find out the topic. At least the version so far matches WP:LEAD more or less.--Filll 02:47, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

A potential source of confusion

We probably need a tag to direct people to the other meaning of the phrase East Indian as I pointed out on that talk page some weeks ago. Do you have any comments?--Filll 03:55, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I am not sure I did it the right way. East Indians (ethnic group) is sort of ambiguous, since there are at least 3 different ethnic groups that are called East Indians. So I tried a tag at the top of East Indians (ethnic group). Take a look and see what you think. --Filll 04:17, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

So is the tag ok or would something else be better?--Filll 04:44, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I posed the question at the reference desk and at India and maybe someone can help.--Filll 05:03, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Archiving and encyclopedic writing.

You are right about the Hinduism page needing a thorough copyedit. This page User:Tony1/How_to_satisfy_Criterion_1a is a good guide on improving the prose (and has practice exercises). And I'll archive the Hinduism page when I have the time, probably tomorrow. You're correct, it is hard on where to draw the line! Cheers Gizza^{Chat ©} 08:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Swastika

I'll copy your version into the page, I wrote mine really quickly and didn't bother rereading it or anything. By the way, for future reference, it's in the Wikipedia namespace, not my userspace, so WP:BE BOLD and make whatever changes you see fit! Nobleeagle ^[TALK] [C] 07:04, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Category:Famous followers of Sathya Sai Baba revisited

I think that there are people in this category for whom insufficient reputable sources have been provided for inclusion i.e. Benjamin Creme and Manmohan Singh. I also think that it should be named into category:Followers of Sathya Sai Baba. Can you please help to keep this category "clean"? It is quite a lot of work. Andries 11:37, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the mountain!

May Krishna inspire us all to achieve the impossible! Gizza^{Chat ©} 07:52, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Hi

Hi, I noticed that you reverted one of the edits made by sockpuppets user:Cerebralsun and user:Nutramul of permbanned user user:Himalayanashoka. I have been reverting his vandalism too, but my effort by itself may not be enough. Please keep an eye on the India page and please help revert Himalayanashoka's vandalism when you can (within 3RR limits of course). Fowler&fowler«Talk» 15:50, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

IAST

Thank you for your comments. I am new to Wikipedia and am trying to learn correct style and citation methods. I understand the the discussions about IAST have been underway for some time. Please help me to learn how to work effectively with these tools and with this team.

Finding the right balance for inclusion of IAST is an interesting task. Ideally, the inclusion of unfamiliar writing elements such as IAST and Devanāgarī, if not overdone, could stimulate interest in some readers. But overdoing it can be pedantic and make people feel bad. Perhaps we can use it like hot pepper on food, to spice things up a bit, but recognizing that not everyone likes the same degree of curry. Buddhipriya 22:20, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Neutroindic

I already added him to the checkuser list. -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 04:06, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Thanks ! I saw that you beat me to it. Is it possible to semi-protect the article ? Abecedare 04:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, you can request it at WP:RFP. The page was fully-protected for a while earlier today, and it has been semi-protected recently because of Himalayanashoka's persistent POV-pushing. I'm not sure why the protection was removed. -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 04:15, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

I just placed in a request for semi-protection. Seems we'll need it for some time. sigh... Abecedare 04:18, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

One more sock down: Wikipedia:Requests for checkuser/Case/Himalayanashoka. That'll stop him for, oh, 30 seconds. -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 04:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

lol. One has to grudgingly admire his lone fight and pity his lack of real life. Abecedare 04:41, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

So basically his position is that India has always been a country, and it's an insulting British POV to claim that it only became an independent country in 1947? -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 05:08, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

As far as I see from his user page, his point is that the British have been involved only in a small fraction of the length of Indian history and therefore only a proportionally short mention of it should be made in the article; he also seems to hold the view that the fact that British colonized India is somehow a British POV and insulting to Indians. I don't claim to understand much of this; and unfortunately for him, the tactics he has adopted overwhelm the credibility of any message he may want to convey. Fair-or-not I would rather devote my attention hearing the argument of some other user for whom I find it easier assuming good faith ... and incidentally, I have only recently started editing the India article and have never interacted with this user. To me that illustrates the futility of his tactics. Abecedare 05:22, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, he might be confusing India (an article about a modern nation-state) with History of India (an article about the history of the subcontinent). Personally, as a citizen of one of the countries colonized by Britain, I'm ok with British colonialism. And it seems to me that 21st-century India is doing pretty well economically specifically because it was colonized by the Brits. But I guess that would be a pro-British POV. :-) -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 05:32, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

In this regard, and with apologies to JFK, "Eich bin ein Britisher"

Come to think of it all Himalayaashoka has achieved is unite previously independent editors under the rubric of "British POVers" ... could he in fact be a British implant ? I wonder ! :-) Abecedare 05:44, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

And, seriously ... irrespective of whether one is ok or not with British colonialism, denying or minimizing its factuality doesn't make much sense to me. Abecedare 05:49, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

And that's really the bottom line. The history of the modern nation-state of India is deeply connected to British colonialism; it's impossible to write a factual and neutral article while trying to minimize that reality. -- Jim Douglas ^(talk) _(contribs) 06:03, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

protection

Unfortunately, a large portion of the content is disputed by established editors. So to prevent edit warring, I have locked the page until things cool down. The longest the page was locked was for almost two months way back in 2005. =Nichalp «Talk»= 18:12, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your kindness and help

Your assistance in getting me started with Wikipedia has been of great value, thank you! Buddhipriya 18:19, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesh_Chaturthi has been vandalized and I don't know how to repair it. Can you take a look? How to deal with vandals who make multiple vandalizations? Buddhipriya 06:16, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

		The Hindu Firestar Thank You Award
		Namaste! I, Buddhipriya, humbly thank you for helping me get started as a contributor to Hinduism. You were one of the first people I communicated with when I began using Wikipedia. You quickly helped my create the Ganesha Purana page which was just featured as a DYK. It is only due to your guidance that the page has any merit. If you have any further advice or comments for me, please post me a message at my talk page. Thank you for your kindness! -- Buddhipriya

Dating Krishna

Hi Abecedare, the best link I've found so far is (this one) which I thought might be of interest. Critically reviewed sources seem pretty hard to come by, or at least they are on the web. Regards, Gouranga(UK) 12:16, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Delhi UT

Delhi is not a state. I've made reversions to image and the text updating the status. The reason is mentioned in the talk:india page. Regards, =Nichalp «Talk»= 16:08, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

Reversionist

Thanks - I was going to file an ANI the other day when the IP edits started up again but didn't have the time. The username he's picked this time is so blatant that surely a lengthy block must be around the corner. As for reverting, he's so predictable a bot could probably do it :)

Orpheus 01:15, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Nathu La

Hi,

Thanks for the edits. As you asked, the second paragraph of geography is incorrectly placed. It should rather be a part of "Economy". Can you do that yourself. I am not editing it, as it may cause an edit-conflict with you. Regards, — Ambuj Saxena (☎) 09:39, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi! We seem to have run into edit conflicts. To avoid such a situation, could you please add {{inuse}} to the top of the page?. I'll then wait till you're done, and the template is removed. Thanks! =Nichalp «Talk»= 10:36, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi! We are planning to put the article for FAC sometime this week. Thanks again for your help in editing the article. — Ambuj Saxena (☎) 11:30, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

You can go ahead and add the link. I won't be editing till later on today. =Nichalp «Talk»= 12:09, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

Hi

Perhaps you may want to look at this [1].Bakaman 02:13, 19 February 2007 (UTC)