Talk:15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis)

A fact from 15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 April 2014 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the 15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis), despite being a cavalry regiment fully manned by Muslim troops (officer pictured), used a Hindu salaam in place of a regulation military salute?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2014/April. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/15th Lancers (Cureton's Multanis).

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Clarify[edit]

@Modest Genius:

The fact about the Hindu salaam is stated in Nath on the pages mentioned therein. I dont have the primary sources Nath used to get information about Cureton's Multanis.

As per my understanding, a salaam is a Hindusthani language (bastard language between Hindi and Urdu) term meaning salute and in general it connotates a hand raised in some fashion of obeisance. It was done by the local Indian population to all the rulers and overlords, or to any authority/functionary. There was no single way of doing it and different communities salaamed very differently. This fact was notable enough to be recorded in history and the fact that it had been sanctioned by an iconic Commander-in-Chief of the time. AshLin (talk) 17:45, 11 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I added the tag because I thought there should be some indication of what a 'salaam' actually is, or a link to a suitable Wikipedia article which explains it. At the moment it's just a foreign-language term with no meaning for most readers. I certainly had no idea what it meant, beyond inferring that it was some kind of salute. On a different but related note, this fact is mentioned in the lead but nowhere else in the article, which contradicts MOS:INTRO. Modest Genius ^talk 10:36, 15 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I have added clarifications & removed the tags. Feel free to restore in case you find them inadequate. AshLin (talk) 14:47, 15 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good. The text still makes we wonder 'what gesture?', but it'll do :) Modest Genius ^talk 11:40, 16 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Dont have any refs describing this particular salaam as of now! Sorry. :) AshLin (talk) 15:01, 16 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]