Wikipedia talk:Noticeboard for India-related topics/Archive 61

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Sigra, Varanasi

Is this Sigra, Varanasi administratively different region or just a locality within Varanasi? Its categorized as Category:Cities and towns in Varanasi district but is described as "downtown area". If its just a locality, it should be redirected to Varanasi as I can't find any non-trivial mentions in RS. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 08:55, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

@Dharmadhyaksha: Gogole map shows it is a part of Varanasi.--Vin09 (talk) 09:24, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
  Done redirected. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 09:28, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

WikiConference India 2016

Hi,

WikiConference India 2016 is an event to provide a common platform for all Wikimedians in India to meet and share their views, discuss challenges and exchange useful tips, best practices and other information. The Conference is open for participation of Wikimedians from all nations. The Conference has a very distinct Indian flavour and deals primarily with issues relating to India on Wikipedia and its sister projects. Indic language Wikimedia projects possible partnerships and collaborations and the Wikicommunity issues, whether in India or abroad. The conference is to be hosted by volunteers from all Indic Communities along with Wikimedia India's support. The main objective is to reduce the gap between different communities and get help from other community members on technical issues besides manu other things.

We welcome local communities in India to place a bid for hosting WikiConference India 2016. The bid consists of two rounds. The first round will be a simple round to encourage participation. The aim of the first round is to confirm the local community support and strength. The first 5 qualifying cities of the first round will participate in the second and final round of bidding with an elaborate plan.

First Round Bidding Criteria

  • City and proposed venue. This city should have at least a domestic airport.
  • Wikimedia signatures of active Wikimedia projects editors who commit to be involved in organizing this in your city
  • Link to any Wikimedia project village pump where the bid has been approved with community consensus (not mandatory but highly recommended)
  • Proposed overall budget to conduct an event with 500 registered participants (including the accommodation cost for 100 scholarship recipients for 3 days).
  • Prior experience conducting similar event(s)

Please place your bids here before 18th October 2015 11:59 PM IST.

Please do indicate the names and contact details of two people from whom any clarifications or queries can be sought regarding your city bid. Please do note that bids need to be supported by consensus from the community and the link to the discussion where this is forthcoming may please be indicated.

Regards,

WCI 2016 Volunteers

AshLin (talk) 13:44, 1 October 2015 (UTC)

IRS

Hello! Indian contributors. I would like to know if Bollywood Hungama (bollywoodhungama.com) is a reliable source ? — Sanskari Hangout 15:21, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Context matters, but you should check out the archives of WP:RSN and post a specific query there. —SpacemanSpiff 15:33, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
I am talking about these links -

Are these reliable ? — Sanskari Hangout 15:39, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

The nomination piece seems ok, but for what purpose? If there's something that's notable it'd be covered by ToI or HT which have a fondness for film awards and this Apsara one doesn't seem to pass muster on that count. As for the billing of Kaise Kaise Rishte, I think it's ok for a non-controversial sourcing, but it's not a contributor to notability. Most of BH should be treated the same way as imdb. —SpacemanSpiff 15:43, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Please comment on Talk:Brahma Kumaris#RFC for adding the word "Cult"

I am asking for your participation in Talk:Brahma Kumaris#RFC for adding the word "Cult" Supdiop (T🔹C) 16:10, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

Help with an article?

I was wondering if anyone could help me find sourcing for the article Ikka Singh. I'm finding some news hits that give an assertion of notability, but there's a bit of difficulty with searching because the guy's stage name comes up with a lot of different things (Ikka). I'm just hoping that one of you will be familiar with the guy's work and can help provide names of albums or songs or other things that can make searching easier. I'm using the WP's search engine, but it's still slow going. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 09:26, 3 October 2015 (UTC)

@Tokyogirl79: I looked at this and the other articles by the editor, including one about a sound engineer, I don't think there's much of a body of work for anyone to be familiar with. As you've found, the coverage is mostly of name mentions in the context of others. —SpacemanSpiff 05:33, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Help with translation

I need some help with the article Sekhauliya. It looks like this is a village and I'm asking the article creator (Amit V Pandey) if it's recognized by the government, which should make it pass notability guidelines, but I get the strong impression that there's a language barrier here. English does not appear to be his first language and the content is somewhat garbled, so I'd greatly appreciate it if someone who speaks Hindi (which I believe is his native language) could stop in and provide some help. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 06:17, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

I suspect this is the Gram Panchayat referred. I haven't been able to find anything about this village in particular. The Census listing isn't working for me now, perhaps you'll have better luck. cheers. —SpacemanSpiff 07:21, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
@Tokyogirl79: Was wrong, it's here in Uttar Pradesh, not in the Haryana gram panchayat of the same name. That file has the population data (page 128) and using that you might be able to grab coords, that's about all I can do now. The category for this would be Category:Villages in Ambedkar Nagar district. cheers. —SpacemanSpiff 07:26, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
  • Is it officially recognized? I'm not terribly familiar with how they go about this - if it's on a census it's legally recognized? Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 07:30, 4 October 2015 (UTC)
    • Census inclusion is official recognition as a village, the transliteration spelling seems to vary, so you probably want to try multiple variations in your searches. It's a village with a population of 353, roughly 50.5 times the size of Chicken, Alaska, so I wouldn't worry about notability in this case. The 2011 census tables if you can actually not time out of the site and get them are pretty good as there's a lot of data made available in one shot. You can use page 128-9 as a source for population, m-f ratio, literacy rates, SC-ST population, no of households, and area; this wasn't the case with earlier census tables so it may be helpful for village article clean ups in general. —SpacemanSpiff 07:38, 4 October 2015 (UTC)

Timeline of Delhi

Hello! I'm here to request contributions to Timeline of Delhi. Many cities have timeline articles, and we should have some for Indian places as well. Aryamanaroratalk, contribs 23:26, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Beerwah, Kashmir

Is Beerwah, Kashmir a split of Beerwah, Jammu and Kashmir. Or is a bit more dab like Beerwah, subdistrict needed? 220 of Borg

The former should be redirected to the latter as it's an incorrect title and we also don't cover sub-districts and gram panchayats separately. They are nothing more than simple administrative constructs that are headquartered in the largest town/village and are grouped as such for the purpose of sharing administrative headcount and resources. —SpacemanSpiff 03:48, 7 October 2015 (UTC)
Done! [1]. 220 of Borg 05:40, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

little Devanagari script request

Can somebody who can read Hindi please look at this (and perhaps other recent edits to Pramada Charan Banerjee)? In this edit alone, various alternative spellings disappear, and it seems that the name Pramada is given in Devanagari script. (Unfortunately I cannot read Devanagari script at all. My bad.) The new addition is highlighted via (((triplex parentheses))). That the reader is provided with Devanagari script is good -- but why only for this one part of the biographee's name, and is the script really so very intricate? Something looks fishy to me. -- Hoary (talk) 07:34, 6 October 2015 (UTC) Strikeout Hoary (talk) 08:11, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

SpacemanSpiff has kindly attended to this one edit, incidentally drawing my attention to Wikipedia:WikiProject India#Indic scripts in lead (which I can summarize in one word: "Don't").
The history of the article is curious. From the start: "Before his joining Sir Pramada Charan Banerjee Hostel was established in 1916 in honor of Sir Pramada Charan Banerjee. This is one of the prominent hostel of the University of Allahabad". Then a massive infusion of copyvio, then removal of same, then heroic improvement by Sitush (at the end of which, no mention of this "prominent hostel" remained), and just recently a reintroduction of material on this hostel. -- Hoary (talk) 08:11, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
Got distracted with something else to reply here. I didn't realize that your friend is still actively editing though. Hostels are Dharmadhyaksha's specialty as you can see from the recent history of WP:DSI, so he can probably go through Allahabad University's hostels too. —SpacemanSpiff 08:18, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
Lolz! Hostel-expert. So I have under my expert-ship two articles of Youth Hostels Association of India and Nariman House and that's about it. All hostels would be non-notable by default until I certify them otherwise. Jokes apart but I seriously can't think of any Indian hostels which would meet WP:GEOFEAT. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 11:20, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
And in case the spelling of Surnames are taking too much of lead-space, how about a foot note or link to Banerjee? Same with Mukherjee, Chatterjee, etc. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 11:24, 6 October 2015 (UTC)
That's not what the script was trying to do here, the ed was inserting his own version of the etymology of "Pramada Charan". —SpacemanSpiff 05:59, 7 October 2015 (UTC)
The reason I included so many variant spellings in the lead was because it impacted greatly on the search results when I was trying to source what was a very poor article: a part of the problem of sourcing was the sheer volume of permutations of his name. I agree that it makes for a convoluted opening section and that it certainly could be relegated to a footnote but I have no particular opinion regarding whether it should be. - Sitush (talk) 07:39, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

A convoluted mirror

is a user submitted content site that also mirrors some stuff from hi.wiki etc and then gets added on here as a source. I stumbled across this during a COIN investigation and found that the editing group had created hi/mr articles which were copied over to this site and used as sources in the en articles! —SpacemanSpiff 17:18, 6 October 2015 (UTC)

Removed it from all the enwiki articles. Still present on hiwiki; will leave a note there. utcursch | talk 16:06, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

Barwa .. same as ??

Barwa Barauli and Barwa village seem to be the same topic as Barwa, Bihar,

  • All state:"Barwa is a village in West Champaran district in the Indian state of Bihar."
  • All at Coordinates: 27.108°N 84.464°E
  • Demographics are different.

And all created quite deliberately within a short period by a reputable editor, (ping!) Anupmehra. 220 of Borg 00:55, 7 October 2015 (UTC)

All 3 are different villages. There are 16 villages named Barwa in the West Champaran district, and six more which have "Barwa" as the first part of their name (including Barwa Barauli).
The coordinates in all the 3 articles were wrong. I searched for the correct coordinates based on census codes, and updated the articles. Also made other fixes, including article names (accessible from Barwa).
utcursch | talk 15:46, 7 October 2015 (UTC)
Many thanks, Utcursch. I felt something like that might have happened. Sometimes 'noob' editors create multi-pages on on topic, being unaware of redirects and page moves, but I didn't think Anupmehra would have.
I added Barwa Barauli to the Barwa dab page, I hope that is correct? I was as confused about the other new entries there not appearing, until I saw they were commented out. 220 of Borg 00:10, 8 October 2015 (UTC)
Seems good! utcursch | talk 00:26, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject India/Requested articles

Hi, kindly keep Wikipedia:WikiProject India/Requested articles on your watchlist and help to create articles mentioned there, you can also suggest new articles to create. Those who are interested in biographical articles can have look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Padma. Hundreds of Padma awardees still doesn't have article. Thank you. --Human3015TALK  02:34, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

Specially those who are interested in increasing their DYK count very easily then making articles on Padma awardees can be a better option. They have done some extra-ordinary work so it always makes DYK hook interesting, I have created article on 5-6 padma awardees recently and nominated 2 of them for DYK and both of them got green signal instantly and may feature at DYK anytime. So it will be nice thing to look for Wikipedia:WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles/Padma. --Human3015TALK  04:13, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

check

India's blockade of Nepal, 2015--Zaalim (talk) 03:16, 8 October 2015 (UTC)

An unsourced, one-sided article. Have redirected it to 2015 Nepal fuel crisis. Can anyone create 2015 Nepal protests? The Nepali government, Maoist political parities and media have accused India of supporting (or even triggering) the protests, so the topic is related to India. utcursch | talk 00:00, 9 October 2015 (UTC)

Request for comments re Kutchi language

  • What spelling should be used for Kutchi language#Spelling of language name?
  • Also, the article has a list of speakers of Katchi, but most articles do not say that they are speakers of Katchi. Would someone take a look at this?
  • The article seems to have been spammed. I removed some, perhaps too much. Some of the other links seem to have a lot of advertising.

Thanks Jim1138 (talk) 18:54, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

The current spelling seems to be just fine: replied at Talk:Kutchi language#Spelling_of_language_name. The anon is being unnecessarily pesky. utcursch | talk 21:36, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

Watch for this

You can keep 2014–15 India–Pakistan border skirmishes on your watchlist. Factual errors and POV pushing are common problems. --Human3015TALK  04:27, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

A merger discussion

A merger discussion regarding Mrs Funnybones and Twinkle Khanna is going on here. A detailed discussion is required. Thanks,--Skr15081997 (talk) 13:36, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

RfC: Should the Indian population pages report the latest genetics research?

I am proposing that (i) the reporting of the latest genetics research of Indian populations be limited to the page on Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia and that (ii) this page be indefinitely semi-protected. No other page on Indian populations should use primary sources on genetic research.

Rationale: The research into the genetic analysis of Indian populations is moving at a rapid pace and many new results are becoming available. However, the field is fluid, the available literature is mostly primary, and its interpretation and verification is difficult. WP:NOR advises us that Wikipedia articles should be based on reliable, published secondary sources and, to a lesser extent, on tertiary sources and primary sources. WP:USEPRIMARY further clarifies that In science, data is primary, and the first publication of any idea or experimental result is always a primary source. At present, we have had such primary sources being used in Indo-Aryan peoples, Dravidian peoples, Adivasi and perhaps other pages. Often the same text is copied from one page to another. A number of unregistered users with dynamic IP addresses have been involved in the creation of this content, and they have left no reasonable edit summaries and showed no participation in talk page discussions. Limiting this content to Genetics and archaeogenetics of South Asia will ensure that it will be reviewed by editors knowledgeable about the subject and we do not have questionable claims being propagated throughout Indian population pages. - Kautilya3 (talk) 19:33, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

[Event] Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest December New Delhi

Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest 2015 is going to be conducted between 15 - 17 December in Delhi. There is one open slot from Indian English Wikipedians. Please nominate yourself there if you think that you are eligible. I don't think I'll go, if you want me to nominate your name, feel free to ask me.

Page: meta:CIS-A2K/Events/2015/Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest

PS. (As I found it a common question, when I was inviting others for other events): Yes, travel and accommodation will be arranged. --Tito Dutta (talk) 10:27, 14 October 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Gayghat

Dear India experts: Here's another village draft article that could use some attention. I found some census information and a couple of other references. It seems the Gaighat spelling is more common.—Anne Delong (talk) 02:57, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

Hello! @Anne Delong: Gayghat have several alternative spelling which includes Gayghat, Gaighat, Gāya Ghāṭa etc. The most suitable is the Gayghat which mean Cow pier. — Sanskari Hangout 18:54, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

Radio Mirchi

There's currently an AfD discussion for the song Khamoshiyan (song) going on here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Khamoshiyan (song). According to WP:NSONG, a song qualifies as notable if it charts on a qualifying WP:CHART, and the song has charted on a Radio Mirchi chart. Unfortunately no Indian charts are listed on the page, either positively or negatively. When I search Google for Indian music charts, Radio Mirchi Top 20 is one of the first results, which leads me to believe it is considered important (not a perfect metric though). However, I can't seem to find information on whether Radio Mirchi should qualify under WP:CHART. Does anyone know more about it, and whether it's comparable to the American Billboard chart, for example? mikeman67 (talk) 14:09, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

@Mikeman67: There is no Billboard kind chart for Indian music. Radio Mirchi is one of leading FM Radio channel and famous in metros of India. Radio Mirchi chart can be considered as standard for Bollywood songs. --Human3015TALK  18:03, 15 October 2015 (UTC)
Actually no. It fails #2 of the criteria as it is a single network airplay chart. —SpacemanSpiff 18:27, 15 October 2015 (UTC)
So in short we can't make articles on Indian songs. This must be discussed here. There should be some criteria for making articles on Indian songs. We can get numerous articles on non-award winning Indian songs, and most of Filmfare award and National award winning songs does not have articles. --Human3015TALK  19:05, 15 October 2015 (UTC)
You can not make songs on Indian songs based on this chart. WP:NSONG has sufficient other criteria.—SpacemanSpiff 19:09, 15 October 2015 (UTC)
Moreover song should pass WP:GNG. Enough and sustainable coverage in independent media. --Human3015TALK  19:32, 15 October 2015 (UTC)
My comment has nothing to do with that particular (or any other) song's notability, it may be notable or it may not. Only the specific chart in question; though if anything passes GNG, the SNGs are really irrelevant. cheers —SpacemanSpiff 15:19, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Move request at Talk:List of colleges affiliated with Delhi University

I had reverted an undiscussed move and suggested taking to RM (assuming that people would be interested in it), it's now been listed at RM and received no comment and relisted again. If you're interested in Category:Lists of colleges affiliated to universities in India, please do comment there, sadly our Education task force is inactive :) —SpacemanSpiff 14:19, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Consolidation of task forces and sub projects

List started by Dharmadhyaksha, feel free to add here; keep hatted so that this doesn't occupy the full screen
The following discussion has been closed. Please do not modify it.
WikiProjects
States and UTs
  1. Wikipedia:WikiProject Andaman and Nicobar Islands
  2. Wikipedia:WikiProject Andhra Pradesh
  3. Wikipedia:WikiProject Arunachal Pradesh
  4. Wikipedia:WikiProject Assam
  5. Wikipedia:WikiProject Bengal
  6. Wikipedia:WikiProject Bihar
  7. Wikipedia:WikiProject Chandigarh
  8. Wikipedia:WikiProject Chhattisgarh
  9. Wikipedia:WikiProject Dadra and Nagar Haveli‎
  10. Wikipedia:WikiProject Daman and Diu‎
  11. Wikipedia:WikiProject Delhi‎
  12. Wikipedia:WikiProject Goa
  13. Wikipedia:WikiProject Gujarat‎
  14. Wikipedia:WikiProject Haryana‎
  15. Wikipedia:WikiProject Himachal Pradesh
  16. Wikipedia:WikiProject Jammu and Kashmir‎
  17. Wikipedia:WikiProject Jharkhand
  18. Wikipedia:WikiProject Karnataka
  19. Wikipedia:WikiProject Kerala
  20. Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakshadweep
  21. Wikipedia:WikiProject Madhya Pradesh
  22. Wikipedia:WikiProject Maharashtra
  23. Wikipedia:WikiProject Manipur‎
  24. Wikipedia:WikiProject Meghalaya
  25. Wikipedia:WikiProject Mithila
  26. Wikipedia:WikiProject Mizoram
  27. Wikipedia:WikiProject Nagaland
  28. Wikipedia:WikiProject Odisha
  29. Wikipedia:WikiProject Pondicherry
  30. Wikipedia:WikiProject Punjab
  31. Wikipedia:WikiProject Punjab (India)
  32. Wikipedia:WikiProject Rajasthan
  33. Wikipedia:WikiProject Regions of India
  34. Wikipedia:WikiProject Sikkim
  35. Wikipedia:WikiProject Tamil Nadu
  36. Wikipedia:WikiProject Telangana
  37. Wikipedia:WikiProject Tripura
  38. Wikipedia:WikiProject Uttar Pradesh
  39. Wikipedia:WikiProject Uttarakhand
  40. Wikipedia:WikiProject West Bengal
Cities
  1. Wikipedia:WikiProject Bangalore
  2. Wikipedia:WikiProject Bhubaneswar
  3. Wikipedia:WikiProject Chennai
  4. Wikipedia:WikiProject Hisar
  5. Wikipedia:WikiProject Hyderabad‎
  6. Wikipedia:WikiProject Lucknow
  7. Wikipedia:WikiProject Mangalore
  8. Wikipedia:WikiProject Mumbai
  9. Wikipedia:WikiProject Patna
  10. Wikipedia:WikiProject Udaipur
Others
  1. Wikipedia:Indian and Pakistani Wikipedians cooperation board
  2. Wikipedia:WikiProject India/Academia task force
  3. Wikipedia:WikiProject India/Women and gender issues
  4. Wikipedia:WikiProject Biodiversity, Protected areas & Environment of India
  5. Wikipedia:WikiProject Christianity in India
  6. Wikipedia:WikiProject Classical Tamil
  7. Wikipedia:WikiProject Dravidian civilizations‎
  8. Wikipedia:WikiProject Dravidian languages‎
  9. Wikipedia:WikiProject Education in India
  10. Wikipedia:WikiProject Geography of India
  11. Wikipedia:WikiProject Hinduism
  12. Wikipedia:WikiProject Hindustani and allied languages
  13. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian districts‎
  14. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian history
  15. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian literature
  16. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian maps‎
  17. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian music
  18. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian Premier League
  19. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian railways
  20. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian roads
  21. Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian television
  22. Wikipedia:WikiProject Krishnaism
  23. Wikipedia:WikiProject Mithila
  24. Wikipedia:WikiProject Offline Wikipedia for Indian Schools
  25. Wikipedia:WikiProject Swami Vivekananda
  26. Wikipedia:WikiProject Swaminarayan
  27. Wikipedia:WikiProject Transport in India
  28. Wikipedia:WikiProject_India/Photography
Task-forces

We now have so many defunct task forces and sub projects that the problems outweigh the benefits, especially when new editors are interested in something and go to a dead talk page. I think we need to do the following:

  1. List out all task forces and sub projects
  2. Identify the ones that have the potential to have some tangible benefit
  3. Consolidate duplicates and those with far too similar scope
  4. Redirect all talk pages to this noticeboard so that questions, suggestions etc aren't left languishing in dead or dormant areas
  5. Also, update {{WP India}} to reflect the list of consolidated projects and task forces

Thoughts? —SpacemanSpiff 07:56, 12 October 2015 (UTC)


    • I've just hatted and move the list to the top of the section so that it doesn't occupy the full screen when people are looking at messages in this section. I've also left a note on the hat to add to the list. cheers. —SpacemanSpiff 13:27, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
Like the idea. Now we need to start checking them. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 13:41, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Starting from the first Wikipedia:WikiProject Andaman and Nicobar Islands, it doesn't have any talk discussion beyond the normal notifications. Members is two. Most of the pages are redlinks. The page doesn't seem to be developed beyond its draft stage. Shall I mark ones like these as fully inactive? ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 18:38, 13 October 2015 (UTC)

For such defunct wikiprojects we can mark them as fully inactive and in turn edit all related templates to redirect to Wikipedia:WikiProject Regions of India which should be a common house for all regions. Are North-Eastern state's and UT's WPs active? I doubt. Also, I have not listed all subgroups of main India project; some listed are "Academia task force", "Photography" etc. I am not sure if they are also going to be pruned over here. There are plenty of these. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:06, 15 October 2015 (UTC)
I think listing cross-project collaboration would be useful. e.g. In the case of the Cinema task force, a lot of the guidelines are essentially developed by WP Film, not here. The way that is handled is also good, while it lists the stuff under the WP India banner, the talk page etc are under WP Film. I believe the same is the case with football. I think something similar should be done for Cricket etc etc as those are the projects that are subject matter experts in the respective areas. I would suggest we hold off on doing this one by one (like just AN) and do it in bulk for all states or UTs in one go so that we have a reasonable view of the positives and negatives. —SpacemanSpiff 07:08, 15 October 2015 (UTC)

States and UTs

I've checked the first ten now and all seem to have to same level of inactivity as the Wikipedia:WikiProject Andaman and Nicobar Islands I mentioned above. One already has its talk redirected here. Should I do the same for the rest which come up? Shall I add "|inactive" to their main page? ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 14:11, 16 October 2015 (UTC)

I think we should tag the inactive ones as inactive and direct them to join WP India directly and use this talk page, so perhaps a modified version of the tag should be used? This way we could gather enough people to reactivate when there's enough interest...—SpacemanSpiff 15:17, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
Okay, will do. I'll leave out and post what I think has some potential here for further investigation. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 17:39, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
I've redirected the talk here and added this notice to the project page. Good enough I hope. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 13:15, 19 October 2015 (UTC)
Yes, you're right. They're taskforces/subprojects, not main WikiProjects. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 11:38, 20 October 2015 (UTC)
Maybe that would be the first thing to do, move them under Wikipedia:WikiProject India/XYZ taskforce? I'd prefer to hear from others before doing that, but this would be a lot cleaner and also avoid duplication of efforts. This is how we set up the Women's task force in Cricket --Wikipedia:WikiProject Cricket/Women's cricket task force. —SpacemanSpiff 14:25, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Birth year of Brahma Kumaris' Lekhraj

Appreciate any inputs at Talk:Dada Lekhraj#Birth_year. utcursch | talk 15:42, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Zahirabad Comment

Hi there. I have been copyediting Zahirabad and an ip keeps changing the spelling to Zaheerabad throughout the article. Does the title of the article need to be changed? Regards, MyrtleMyrtlegroggins (talk) 14:01, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

Hmm, telangana.gov says "Zaheerabad, elections.in says "Zahirabad" and census.gov.in says "Zahirabad". So advantage Zahirabad I guess. We probably need to maintain that consistency in the article, but nobody will let it remain in the article; it will likely get changed again. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 15:10, 24 October 2015 (UTC)
Moved discussion to Talk:Zahirabad#Spelling. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 15:20, 24 October 2015 (UTC)

Centre for Equality and Inclusion - new article

I've created a new article on the organisation, Centre for Equality and Inclusion.

Centre for Equality and Inclusion is a non-governmental organisation based in India that works towards female empowerment and women's rights.

If you'd like to help with research or to improve the article's quality, source suggestions would be appreciated, at Talk:Centre for Equality and Inclusion.

Thank you,

Cirt (talk) 14:50, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Sundarpurs

Can anyone help with wp:RS to confirm whether Sundarpur, Jiwachhghat and Sundarpur, Darbhanga, Bihar are one place or two, and to provide text to distinguish them if they are different? Both artices say "... is a village ... in Darbhanga district " but an editor says that one is an urban area and is therefore different from the other (unclear which). One has a source, one has coordinates. PamD 17:50, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

I used this site to try and find the villages but I only see one that is in Darbhanga, Bihar. I think we should merge Sundarpur, Jiwachhghat into Sundarpur, Darbhanga, Bihar and maybe move the latter to Sundarpur, Bihar. Filpro (talk) 18:04, 25 October 2015 (UTC)

Picnic (1966 film)

The article Picnic (1966 film) is nominated for deletion here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Picnic (1966 film). Editors are invited to comment and determine if there is significant coverage in multiple reliable sources that can show whether or not the film is notable enough for its own article on Wikipedia. Thanks, Erik (talk | contrib) (ping me) 18:11, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

Anand Bakshi is in "starring" section. Interesting. --Human3015TALK  18:22, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

South West India

Can anyone have a look at the article South West India? Sure the term can be found in several books, but most of them use it to cover Coastal South West India and neighbouring areas. On the other hand, the article South West India states that the term covers all the South Indian states + Maharashtra + Goa. utcursch | talk 00:16, 23 October 2015 (UTC)

Isn't it an obvious hoax? Should be AfD's in my opinion. - Kautilya3 (talk) 08:35, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
Southern India is a notable one, there's nothing like south west, south north. I support above comment.--Vin09 (talk) 14:59, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, I'll PROD it. Will take it to AfD if PROD is declined. utcursch | talk 15:14, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
I also noticed Northwestern India. Filpro (talk) 02:03, 27 October 2015 (UTC)

'Sirimanu' : Request for references

Hi,

Presently I am supporting relatively new article Ceremonial pole. I came across a little info about 'Sirimanu' at Sirimanothsavam#Procession & reffs seems to be available at google books too. I am bit confused if it is celebrated in Tamilnadu or Andhra or in both the states.

I suppose some one from south Indian background can do a better justice by including improving 'Sirimanu' related information along with references in article Sirimanothsavam#Procession and also in umbrella article Ceremonial pole.

Thanks and rgds.

Mahitgar (talk) 07:07, 28 October 2015 (UTC)

Rajiv Internet Village

Can any one check Rajiv Internet Village page. Only one newspaper article as reference.--Vin09 (talk) 12:36, 31 October 2015 (UTC)

User talk:Dear sri sri 1008 pujya Dada pamma ram ji

I am trying to communicate with a new user, User:Dear sri sri 1008 pujya Dada pamma ram ji, who is writing in what I suspect to be one of the Indic languages. Could anyone here communicate with them, and give them a steer to how they might best contribute to Wikipedia? -- The Anome (talk) 19:34, 1 November 2015 (UTC)

School lists

This has probably been discussed before on this page, but not concluded in any way. Oct 14 and May 15 discussions. But there hasn't been much improvement in school-related lists of India. I hence propose the following:

  1. All "List of schools in (city)", "List of (faculty) colleges in (city)" be merged and moved to "List of educational institutes in (city)", leaving redirects behind.
  2. All small size "List of educational institutes in (city)" be merged and moved to "List of educational institutes in (state)", leaving redirects behind. (Note: "Small size" would be a variable term depending on actual page size in bytes as well as surfing feasibility. Case-by-case decisions will be taken here.)
  3. All entries would be blue-linked strictly. Red-linked entries (no-liked also) with references (of good/bad quality) are not allowed. Please take some effort to start a stub by using good quality references and then enlist the institute.
  4. Alphabetize the lists. Do not write any description, like address, phone number, founding year, rated-top-10-in-blah-blah-by-my-local-newspaper-with-500-prints-daily. Only possible description-type text can be of the city name (if the header is "other places") and former names if distinctly different.

Feel free to add more or suggest changes. If need be, we can later take this to RfC after good discussion has happened. I would also request vast number of editors to help in this mess-cleaning. I remember that tag-and-access was a very successful drive our group took few years back which also inspired other groups to follow our footprints. Let's encourage them as well with our Swachh Bharat-articles Abhiyan.   §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:31, 30 October 2015 (UTC)

Pinging @Muhandes: for his expertise in handling University lists. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:34, 30 October 2015 (UTC)
This will be workable for smaller places but Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi etc etc will have to follow the current format to avoid WP:SIZE problems. Another point that I don't care one way or the other about, quite often AfDs for non-secondary schools etc close as "merge to list" or "merge to city/town", then it becomes imperative to include unlinked entries. —SpacemanSpiff 13:11, 31 October 2015 (UTC)
True. We will compromise that for larger metros. But I don't remember seeing any "merge to list/city/town" Afd recently. In case of entries which have good quality references like may be a newspaper entry of some event or so AfDs have recently also closed as Keep, especially given the now widespread WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES. Anyways, I don't mind non-linked entries in list. But these are usually backed by school's website itself or some forum type yellow pages website which list all schools of a region. In List of institutions of higher education in Delhi we have listed fake universities and we can't risk listing such fake institutes backed by such poor sources. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 04:01, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

GAR for Palak Muchhal

Palak Muchhal, an article that you or your project may be interested in, has been nominated for a community good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 09:53, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Ha Ha Hee Hee Ho Ho

The 1955 Bollywood film Ha Ha Hee Hee Ho Ho is nominated for deletion here: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ha Ha Hee Hee Ho Ho. Editors are invited to comment to determine if the film meets Wikipedia's notability guidelines or not. Thanks, Erik (talk | contrib) (ping me) 15:55, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Dharampatni

So what does one do about stuff like this? I assume it is a real TV series (plenty of episodes on Dailymotion) but nothing on the page is verifiable. The list of writers, for example, has grown over the years and looks dubious. Perhaps remove everything except "was an Imagine TV series"? --regentspark (comment) 22:49, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

WP:TVSHOW is very lenient and everything aired on national-level channel is "generally" considered notable. If not for that, i would propose redirecting to List of programs broadcast by Imagine TV and mentioning 1-2 lines there. We have various COI editors on TV show article which promote shows of their channel as well as vandalize other articles. Few refs which might be useful [2] [3]. And you might find plenty more in TOI. Even if you add anything to the article, it might not stay there after few months. But give it a try... §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 03:45, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
I was thinking more about subtraction rather than addition since almost nothing in the article is sourced. The genesis of all this is the addition of a writer to the list of writers by a now blocked promotional sock puppet. I have no clue whether she was a writer on the show or not but noticed that the number of writers keeps increasing. Do we know if they really were writers? Do we include minor writers or only the main ones? --regentspark (comment) 16:18, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

Adil-E-Jahangir

Self-declared deletionist User:KDS4444 seems to be having a field day nominating older Indian films at Afd. One such recent Afd is Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Adil-E-Jahangir, a 1956-released directorial effort by G. P. Sippy, which is pretty much a textbook case of what we're not going to find online references for, per WP:IKI. I couldn't find much using the online search tools at WP:INDAFD, to be sure. Shawn in Montreal (talk) 18:39, 7 November 2015 (UTC)

photo request

Hi wikipedians in Chennai ! Is anyone able to snap a photo of the Y R Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education please?

I would like to post it in the page of Suniti Solomon, the HIV researcher and activist who died this year.- I cannot find a free file for her portrait. please ping me if you reply ! thank you. --Wuerzele (talk) 09:44, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Kashmir dispute at Talk:List of territorial disputes#Kashmir_dispute

Need some editors opinion/comment on this content dispute. D4iNa4 (talk) 17:51, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Temples in Panamattom

Panamattom is a small village in Kerala with ~10K+ population and turns out that we have plenty usourced articles of Hindu temples in this village. I searched online and found no mentions of these in any WP:RS. Can someone with knowledge of regional languages try out and see if they are notable enough to stay?

Kavummuri Temple, Panamattom seems to have been PRODed and deleted in January 2013. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:39, 5 November 2015 (UTC)

The article has many false sentences. Many questionable including its location and population.--Vin09 (talk) 07:25, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for cleaning the village article @Vin09:. What do you think about the temples? I can't find anything in English online sources. Plus they are all one-liners giving no hint of any notability or possibility vary search terms. Should they be PRODed? §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 08:29, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
Yes and also the village needs to be cleaned more.--Vin09 (talk) 08:45, 5 November 2015 (UTC)
PRODed all 5 now. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 11:25, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Peer Review Request

Hello all, I have added a peer review request on Haryana. It would be great if you can help me in this. Thanks -- Pankaj Jain Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count) 04:44, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

Guttikonda_Bilam

Can anyone check for references Guttikonda_Bilam.--Vin09 (talk) 05:44, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

Indian National Army FAC

Hello, I havenominated the Indian National Army article for FA. From recent experience with India House, the FAC stagnated after a while therefore I am posting a notice here for interested editors, your help and comments would be much appreciated to get this important article to FA status (even if this current nomination fails). Note I must declare, I am the major contributor to this article, so I must clarify this is not a canvassing attempt. Opinions and contributions sought rueben_lys (talk · contribs) 13:05, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Gauthameswarar Temple, Kumbakonam

Can someone help out on Talk:Gauthameswarar Temple, Kumbakonam, please? Sam Sailor Talk! 08:10, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

  Done someone answered. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 15:14, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Articles for deletion/Greater Rayalaseema

Comments needed for Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Greater Rayalaseema.--Vin09 (talk) 18:18, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Highlight or Discuss Indian English Wikipedia community issues in CIS-A2K's policy handbook

Hello,
Currently at CIS-A2K, we are working on a handbook called "Indic Wikipedia Policies and Guidelines Handbook" where we are discussing a number of things such as: Creating new policies, Modifying existing ones; and to explain these we had to discuss Village Pump, Consensus etc. The book is in English, but we hope to translate and print the book in a few Indian languages.

Now,

a) We are eager to add your frequently asked questions on policies and guidelines, and discuss the difficulties you are facing to manage, enforce or deal with any policy on your Wikipedia.

For this reason, we are inviting you to ask questions or discuss things related to your Wikipedia's (WP:IND) policies and guidelines.

Selected questions or discussions will be published in our handbook and askers/participants will be given credits in the book.

and/or

b) We are also inviting you to preview the handbook and give your feedback to improve it.

Please fill this form if you want to join the survey. --Tito Dutta (talk) 10:38, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Rudravaram

Rudravaram disambiguation page has many pages linked. Krishna district itself has many villages, so for those pages mandal needs to be mentioned or mandal and district both?--Vin09 (talk) 08:38, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Ramakant Maharaj

Dear India experts: This old draft will soon be deleted as stale under db-g13. It would need a lot of work, and I have no idea if this is a notable subject or not. If yes, perhaps someone here can improve it. If not, just don't edit it and it will be deleted soon.—Anne Delong (talk) 11:11, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Raheja Developers needs eyes

This article has long been subject to a series of SPAs determined to restore puffery and delete any negative material, no matter how well sourced. I have just reverted the ministrations of two more [4], [5], but haven't got the time to keep the article on close watch. Voceditenore (talk) 12:22, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

I will keep an eye. Thanks for the message Voceditenore. Yash! 16:49, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks, Yash!. SpacemanSpiff has now semi-protected the page which should make the job a bit easier, and several of the SPAs are now also listed at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Aarvig. Best, Voceditenore (talk) 17:00, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Srote

Dear India experts: This old draft will soon be deleted as stale. Is this a notable topic? It needs some reliable sources, but if this is a Hindi news source, the sources may not be in English.—Anne Delong (talk) 01:38, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Chandra dynasty listed at Requested moves

 

A requested move discussion has been initiated for Chandra dynasty to be moved to Candra_dynasty. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 05:44, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

To opt out of RM notifications on this page, transclude {{bots|deny=RMCD bot}}, or set up Article alerts for this WikiProject.

AfC submission

Anyone willing to work on Draft:Kolletikota? Best, FoCuS contribs; talk to me! 21:20, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

I'll take care of it, give some time. Thanks.--Vin09 (talk) 04:30, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
@FoCuSandLeArN:   Done --Vin09 (talk) 08:18, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks! FoCuS contribs; talk to me! 11:58, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

FLAG ICONS

As per Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Icons#Avoid_ flag_icons_in_infoboxes it says flag icons should be avoided. But in the last para, it says Human geographic articles – for example settlements and administrative subdivisions – may have flags of the country and first-level administrative subdivision in infoboxes. So, for villages, towns and cities can we have FLAG ICONS or not?--Vin09 (talk) 13:13, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Brahma

There is a dispute ongoing at the Brahma page. A user has added material to the intro that belongs in the article body (where it is already mentioned) in this edit here. All attempts to persuade the editor to allow an edit has failed and there are the stirrings of an edit war. In accordance with wiki policy, it is important that any article's introductory paragraph give only a general overview of a topic and not selectively present viewpoints of specific schools or sects as this gives undue weight to those views. The debate and sources can be seen on the talk page Talk:Brahma#Disagree_with_last_edit here. The misplaced phrase in question is: "...is a Hindu deity who functions as a 'secondary creator' as described in the Mahabharata and Puranas. Born from a lotus emerging from the navel of Vishnu, Brahma creates all the forms in the universe, but not the primordial universe itself. Thus in most Puranic texts, Brahma's creative activity depends on the presence and power of a higher god." The information is accurate, but not appropriate for the intro without including the older story of Hiranyagarbha that is used in Vedanta, Vaisheshika, Samkhya, certain Mahayana groups and other schools that don't necessarily use Vaishnav Puranas. Since including all the different stories in the intro would be unrealistic and lower readability, it is my belief this edit should be undone to the previous version which is more neutral and comprehensive. Any second opinions would be greatly appreciated. Iṣṭa Devatā (talk) 06:52, 13 November 2015 (UTC)
  Done resolved. Iṣṭa Devatā (talk) 06:19, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Was Detective Conan ever aired/published in English on Indian television/in India?

Was Detective Conan ever aired in English on Indian television? Was the manga ever published in English in India?

I ask because the series currently has the title Case Closed (The series title in the USA, Canada, and UK). I found that the series is published in English as Detective Conan in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, and Indonesia. If I find it is also published as "Detective Conan" in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, etc. I will do a requested move.

Thanks, WhisperToMe (talk) 14:58, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

 

Category:Hindu movements and organizations has been nominated for deletion, merging, or renaming. You are encouraged to join the discussion on the Categories for discussion page.

Need second opinions

Hey all, I need some second opinions on this and this is the first place I'm checking in. Long story short, an article for Huccha Venkat was created and deleted several times before it was drafted to Draft:Huccha Venkat. The guy does appear to have received a lot of coverage, but I'm somewhat worried about this from a WP:BLP issue since he's pretty much known for controversy and his lawyer has stated that he's mentally ill. Offhand his appearance on BB and the film should be enough to pass notability guidelines, but I know that this will likely be quickly nominated or at least targeted for deletion if this gets approved to the mainspace.

Since I'm posting this at two different boards, this might be best handled on the draft's talk page or at WP:BLP/N, where I'm going to post next. I just wanted to give you guys a head's up since this is India related and as such, there's going to be the normal troubles with sources coming up in a general search. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 12:11, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Hi, He seems notable enough to me, with 500,000 hits on Google Search. Now proper references are needed. Regards, Yann (talk) 16:02, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Devita Saraf

The subject article seems to be catching a lot of COI editors. Previously when Manojche was caught he has stopped editing the article. But now Nexent has come and there are other IPs and SPAs like Writernmore too. Can people please watch this? A new article Vu Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has also been recently created which I have now PRODed. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 09:28, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Please file at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Cyberhawk 5, while technical linking to the master may not be possible, the links between the recent accounts is possible. —SpacemanSpiff 03:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
Oh! Wasn't aware of the history of this page.   Done §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 04:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Bigg Boss 9

I don't know where to start. What happened to this? The article lacks almost everything a standard Wikipedia:WikiProject Big Brother must have. How blatantly different this article looks from its predecessor is uncanny. From the looks of it the season has been airing for 42 days(judging by the latest eviction) and there is absolutely no sign of how we got there. What is the reason for this? I see the page has been protected for appropriate purpose but the page editors only appear to update eviction outcome in the sidebar.

List of sections missing(in order of appearance):

1. Weekly summary
Mentioned in the project here. This doesn't seem any different from the episode list for Satyamev Jayate for which a separate page has been resurrected to quote the events of each episode. Then why are the summaries not present in Bigg Boss 9 from scratch?
2. Nominations table
Under this part of the project it clearly states that a Big Brother article must contain a nomination history in all incidents where votes have been cast which lead to evictions of housemates.
3. Lack of references.
The article has an acute shortage of sources. This shouldn't really be a problem for anyone who knows how to use Google.
I want to nominate this article along with others, on which I'm working on, for improvement or at the very least convince someone from here to initiate the process.
--WeirdWaffle (talk) 00:33, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Kartiktiwary, Rupz 10, GSS-1987 your opinions here will be appreciated. --WeirdWaffle (talk) 19:19, 22 November 2015 (UTC) struck comments by sockpuppet of User:ImtitaniumPsychonaut (talk) 14:29, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
Hello WeirdWaffle, Thank you for involving me in this matter. The page is missing lots of information I don't know why but i will definitely try adding more information about the show along with the nomination table. Regards Singhtalk to me 20:52, 22 November 2015 (UTC)
@GSS-1987: That's very kind of you. I did not know where to take the matter so I posted it here and thought of involving the few editors who are currently engaged with the article. Also I just went through the page history and it seems like the nominations table was removed as fancruft here. This might be because the table usually does not cater reference but regardless is an essential part of any Big Brother article. See this. The same goes for the weekly summary section and the vote count. All of these were removed by an editor unaware of the format of the Big Brother articles. Since the page is protected most users without an account who usually updated the table were unable to do so. This whole project requires a strong initiative.
I googled references for the nominations and I believe we can use these to retain the voting history:
[6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] --WeirdWaffle (talk) 21:28, 22 November 2015 (UTC) struck comments by sockpuppet of User:ImtitaniumPsychonaut (talk) 14:29, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
@WeirdWaffle: I have started the editing part of the page and am thinking to revert the edit for the table from here also there is a section missing for Tasks so am also thinking to add a table for Tasks as well. It might take some time because I have to watch all episodes again to update the Nomination and Voting table. Thank you for providing the reference links. Regards Singhtalk to me 07:11, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
@GSS-1987: Since we are to take the initiative I have gone out to fill the table as much as I can. You can find it here. Please look at the sources tab below the evictions. --WeirdWaffle (talk) 10:15, 23 November 2015 (UTC) struck comments by sockpuppet of User:ImtitaniumPsychonaut (talk) 14:29, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
  • Before you all start filling the article with all fictional things like games/events/she-cursed-her/he-beat-him crap, please note that undue importance should not be given to the fictional items alone in the article. This is an encyclopedia and not a TV guide or fan-forum to check out what was missed in last episode. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 09:33, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
@Dharmadhyaksha: If you would just read what I have written a little more carefully you'll see that 'Lack of references' has been cited as one of the major problems in the article. I have gone out to suggest inclusion of sources in tables which will be a first in these articles. I am saying this because I have examples of international versions of the same reality TV show as references provided by the Big Brother project. Take this for the first example. All the information is supported by references and that's what I hope to do for the indian article as well. For the second example please note that the nominations table does not include sources for obvious reasons.--WeirdWaffle (talk) 10:01, 23 November 2015 (UTC) struck comments by sockpuppet of User:ImtitaniumPsychonaut (talk) 14:29, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
And if you would have read my comment you would have understood that sourced or unsourced, undue content related to what happens in the show (i.e. the fictional part) should not be added leaving aside non-fictional parts (like maybe the production, audience/critic reviews/TRPs etc.) A balance is needed on these two aspects while writing about such articles to not let it cross and become a fancruft. And don't tell me what other articles look like; see WP:OSE. And we see a lot of new enthusiastic editors around this time of the year who later on are found blocked for numerous policy-based reasons. Just make sure your whole bunch stays safe. Majority of you seem to have registered recently and have no more than 1000 edits.
Requesting regular fire-fighters to keep an eye here @TheRedPenOfDoom, Rsrikanth05, SpacemanSpiff, Cyphoidbomb, and Psychonaut: §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 10:32, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
@Dharmadhyaksha: You're right and I am definitely in favor. I did misunderstand that. Apologies. --WeirdWaffle (talk) 10:45, 23 November 2015 (UTC) struck comments by sockpuppet of User:ImtitaniumPsychonaut (talk) 14:29, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
Will keep an eye. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 10:54, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
Quite possibly this thread was instigated by yet another sockpuppet of the Bigg Boss-obsessed hoaxer User:Imtitanium. I'd advise everyone reading this to refrain from further discussion or collaboration until the admins have had a chance to review the evidence. —Psychonaut (talk) 11:07, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
@Dharmadhyaksha: I also apologize if i misunderstood anything but my main attention is to keep only genuine non-promotional information here on Wikipedia and I do understand that Wikipedia is not the place to promote anything. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GSS-1987 (talkcontribs) 13:40, 23 November 2015‎
User:WeirdWaffle has been confirmed as a sockpuppet of User:Imtitanium. Everyone participating in this discussion, please beware of this user, a long-term vandal and hoaxer. If you are approached by a relatively new user seeking support for edits to Bigg Boss-related pages, either on your user talk page or on an article or project talk page, please treat it with extreme suspicion. —Psychonaut (talk) 14:29, 23 November 2015 (UTC)
Good catch @Psychonaut:. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 04:59, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Requested move: "2015 Nepal fuel crisis" → "Indian Economic Blockade on Nepal"

There is a request for moving 2015 Nepal fuel crisis to Indian Economic Blockade on Nepal at Talk:2015 Nepal fuel crisis#Requested_move_21_November_2015. utcursch | talk 22:53, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Copyrights on Indian state emblems

I don't know enough on copyrights but wouldn't File:Rajasthan emblem.png fall under Indian public domain based on its publication date? If so, I think the logo could be used in the template for Rajasthan. If not, it actually needs a proper fair use rationale. -- Ricky81682 (talk) 07:34, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

It's identical to the emblem of India, which is PD. So yes, IMO.—indopug (talk) 16:44, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

UPDATE: 2015 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest

Hello,
Earlier, we announced in the mailing lists informing you all about the 2015 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest that is going to be held between 15 and 17 December at National Law University, Delhi. 10 Wikimedians from various Indian language Wikimedia communities and Indian English Wikipedia/Wikimedia community will be selected to attend this event where the event is aimed at helping them to work on various policy level works for their respective communities.

From your community we have got 2 nominations where we want you all to select only one participant by endorsing against the usernames below. Please edit the subsections below and endorse the applicant you think should be representing your community in the event. We also encourage more applicants, especially more female applicants, to apply and share their application with other fellow Wikimedians in your language community for endorsements. Though we understand it is quite difficult to assess one’s contribution on the basis of endorsements only, it is impossible on our end to select one from your community as a representative without your consent.

Last date of nomination/endorsement is: 15 November 2015, 23:59 (IST) --Tito Dutta (talk) 10:03, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Tito, imho perhaps you may like to set the last date of endorsements after the last date of nomination. For example, I'd prefer to choose once the candidates are fixed so as to choose the best candidate. AshLin (talk) 12:03, 13 November 2015 (UTC)

User:Srravya

Srravya (talk · contribs · global contribs · logs · block log)

Endorsements

  1. Endorse --Dittymathew (talk) 05:53, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
  2. Support. Srravya's off-wiki outreach activities and participation in wider FOSS movement and policy discussions is impressive. I endorse her nomination for attending the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. Considering that the English Wikipedia community is many times bigger than other Indian language Wikipedia communities and considering that there are only 2 nominations and few endorsements, I would recommend that CIS-A2K support both the nominations to encourage these promising Wikipedians.--Ravishankar (talk) 06:00, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
  3. Support for the same reasons as above. Her FOSS work in addition to Wiki contributions make her suited to attend this conference. -- Sundar \talk \contribs 13:20, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
  4. Support as per reasons above. -- ♪Karthik♫ ♪Nadar♫ 03:55, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

Comments - Requesting additional time for endorsement

Tamil Nadu has suffered from complete outage for the last ten days due to heavy rainfall, cyclones and resulting floods. Chennai, in particular, faced lack of electricity for the last one week. With no access to a computer and internet, I was unable to work on the endorsement for the nomination. I kindly request for additional time to gather endorsements. Regards, Srravya (talk) 12:21, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

User:Jim Carter

Jim Carter (talk · contribs · global contribs · logs · block log)

Endorsements
  1. Yash! 11:48, 14 November 2015 (UTC)
  2. Endorse"". AshLin (talk) 12:27, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
  3. Support. Jim Carter's on-wiki admin activities and participation in off-wiki community events is good. I endorse his nomination for attending the Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest. Considering that the English Wikipedia community is many times bigger than other Indian language Wikipedia communities and considering that there are only 2 nominations and few endorsements, I would recommend that CIS-A2K support both the nominations to encourage these promising Wikipedians.--Ravishankar (talk) 06:00, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
  4. A quick look at Jim Carter's on-wiki profile shows a valuable contributor. I support this nomination. -- Sundar \talk \contribs 13:21, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Update

Thanks for getting involved. Based on your discussion and endorsements both of the editors above have been selected . --Tito Dutta (talk) 05:25, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Prashant Kishor

Several new single-purpose accounts and IPs are edit-warring at the newly created BLP Prashant Kishor, restoring a poorly written, formatted and sourced version that is chock full of the users' personal opinion.

Could an admin please take a look at this and maybe put some sort of lock on the article for a short period?—indopug (talk) 16:41, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

WP:RFPP — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2605:E000:3F13:1D00:18F8:191C:D7D5:5EB2 (talk) 00:02, 28 November 2015 (UTC)
Thank you.—indopug (talk) 04:34, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Cleanup

Little cleanup needed at Vaddi page, also please check the licenses of images.--Vin09 (talk) 10:14, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

The entire History section seems fishy to me. Anyone who can help me find sources? --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 10:23, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Comment on Draft:Karnabharam by Bhasa

Your comments on Draft:Karnabharam by Bhasa are welcomed. Please use Preferences → Gadgets → Yet Another AFC Helper Script, or use {{afc comment|your comment here}} directly in the draft. Sam Sailor Talk! 13:02, 28 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikiproject Visakhapatnam

Like Wikipedia:WikiProject Hyderabad, needs page for Wikipedia:WikiProject Visakhapatnam.--Vin09 (talk) 07:30, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

Requested move for Bangalore to Bengaluru

Please comment here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bangalore#Requested_move_29_November_2015

--The Avengers 05:10, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Devdas (1936 film) vs. Devdas (1935 film)

Hi, It seems there is a lot of confusion about these films. I renamed and moved images which were wrongly described from the 1935 to the 1936 version. The legend mentions Saigal, so they are from the Hindi version, not the Bengali version. Now I am trying to upload a copy of the movie from YouTube (or another source), but there is also a lot of confusion there. File:Devdas 1936.webm is described as the Bengali version on YouTube, although it is in Hindi. The beginning is different than this one (Dailymotion). Any idea? Regards, Yann (talk) 21:12, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Devdas, 1936 Hindi movie. Yann (talk) 10:36, 28 November 2015 (UTC)
Also some references give 1935 while others give 1936 as the release date for the Hindi version. Any idea? Yann (talk) 11:33, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
I think the date problem is due to the multilingual nature of the film. It was first released in Bengali and then in Hindi. I'm guessing that the '35 vs '36 issue is more to do with the language -- Hindi came second but the title was originally released in 1935, but it's gotten confusing over the years that no one has it right anymore! —SpacemanSpiff 07:39, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

About "Indian Kanoon"

Hello all,
According to "about" page and other third-party desciptions, this is a search engine for Indian legislation and case law.
A large number (but definitely not lakhs, our shibboleth number  ) - of articles link to it in some form.

Is Indian Kanoon a reliable source for Indian legislation and case law?
--Shirt58 (talk) 10:43, 30 November 2015 (UTC)

Not usually. WP:PRIMARY. - Sitush (talk) 10:49, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
I would use it as a very reliable primary source. I have had few occasions to see that the laws taken from other sources in pdf formats do verbatim match with the html ones from this website. So I prefer this site for easy of surfing than downloading pdfs from random sources. I haven't seen any case laws though. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 11:28, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
I concur with Dharmadhyaksha. Indian Kanoon is a good repository of Indian Law. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 18:58, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
But we are not supposed to cite legal cases etc directly. That would amount to original research in one form or another. In most all situations where I have seen it used, the context has been case law rather than simple recitation of legislation. - Sitush (talk) 19:03, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
Who said anything about citing a case? We've only mentioned the Law. Not individual cases. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 19:05, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
Eh? Who said anything about only the law (by which I think you mean acts)? I'm the first person to make the distinction between cases and acts and it comes from my direct experience of removing the thing from articles over several years. Shirt58's listings include both acts and case law. Further, please note that my initial comment was not usually; that is, it was not never. - Sitush (talk) 19:12, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
Well, what I meant was that if the site is claiming to produce something verbatim, be it act/law/case-law/judgment/whatever, I would trust that the quote is right and would use it accordingly as quote itself. So I don't mind basing a Wikisource entry from this source. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 03:52, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
You both seem to be in agreement since the beginning, it's Rsrikanth05's post that is a bit confusing, because it shouldn't be used as a source for law -- as in a secondary source. —SpacemanSpiff 07:29, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
I think I am at fault here. I should have asked "Is Indian Kanoon a reliable primary source for Indian legislation and case law? Is it an OK primary source like Austlii?" Primary sources have their place here, if only to back up reliable secondary sources.
See Draft:Indian Kanoon.
Pete AU aka --Shirt58 (talk) 11:34, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
Well, yeah. I think it is reliable as a primary source to back up secondary sources. But why on earth would we want to do that? I can see good reasons for including it in an External Links section for, say, an article about a specific piece of legislation but I really don't see what is gained by using it to support a secondary, especially since doing so is likely to involve WP:OR (specifically, synthesis). - Sitush (talk) 13:49, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

India AfDs

We have over 75 articles listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/India and over 2/3rd of these have been relisted at least once. The count had almost reached century in last 2-3 weeks. Hence requesting regular editors to participate in AfDs and reduce the backlog and help admins take decisions on them. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 05:09, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Confusion on population

Can comment at Talk:Eluru#UA.--Vin09 (talk) 07:32, 2 December 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Prof Ram Meghe College of Engineering and Management

Hello India experts. Here's one more old draft that will soon be deleted as stale unless someone takes an interest in it.—Anne Delong (talk) 04:59, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Railyatri spam

User Annoy Chakraborty has inserted a link to Railyatri.in onto various Railway station pages. I've left a warning, and a COI notice after I found a person of the same username on the Railyatri.in Blog. I'm cleaning this mess up now. Request others to keep their eyes out. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 09:01, 27 November 2015 (UTC)

@Rsrikanth05:I've also witnessed several arrivals/departures timings tables in many pages.--Vin09 (talk) 10:19, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
Hi @Vin09: Yes, I noticed your revert on Vijaywada station, it goes against WP:NTT. I've noticed. The most commons blocks of text are 'most travelled to destination from xyz', 'most delayed trains at xyz' the likes. Earlier, it used to like to Railyatri's ios app launch page, now it goes to the blog, which again, is link spam. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 11:21, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
@Rsrikanth05:I've not removed his content but just removing arrivals/departures columns. I'll check the spam links as well and adjust those headings and perform some cleanup. Tried to communicate with the user, no response yet from long time.--Vin09 (talk) 11:37, 27 November 2015 (UTC)
Thanks; :) --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 10:01, 28 November 2015 (UTC)
@Rsrikanth05: So, we need to remove those links wherever we find? Right?--Vin09 (talk) 17:10, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
Yep. Railyatri isn't a news source and the link serves no purpose here. On top of that, the user has a conflict of interest and is a Single Purpose account. Removal would be the best solution. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 19:23, 3 December 2015 (UTC)
Cleaned all links except from RailRadar. Someone please check notability of this mobile app from independent sources. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:02, 4 December 2015 (UTC)
Apparently it was originally a CRIS product, thus giving it some form of authority over other apps. I'll dig a little deeper and see what I can uncover. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 06:28, 4 December 2015 (UTC)

Female journalists, reporters BLP vios

I've been watching these pages for a long time. One thing I noticed here is that WP:BLP violations happen quite frequently to pages concerning public figures like journalists, reporters, news anchors especially if the person concerned is a woman; they usually become soft targets for right wingers and other chaps. With people trying to add stuff like this, this or this, I strongly recommend editors to watch these pages as quite often, handling them alone becomes quite burdensome.

I'll look for more in Category:Indian television journalists and Category:Indian women journalists. ‑Ugog Nizdast (talk) 05:10, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Some more:
Ugog Nizdast (talk) 13:27, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

This is a huge part of Wikipedia. Like elsewhere, editors working in this area use a skill set that helps them with the challenges of POV editing, copyvios, and much, much more. Well, these are considerations when evaluating candidates at Wikipedia:Requests for adminship.

So, please consider taking a look at and watchlisting this page:

You could be very helpful in evaluating potential candidates, and maybe even find out if you would be a suitable RfA candidate.

Best wishes,

Anna Frodesiak (talk) 00:30, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Help communicating with a contributor

Hi, I seem to be having some trouble communicating with Sumanjha1991. He contributed an article on a painter from India, but it was a copyvio. I tried to explain what was wrong with it and clean it up, and he replaced it with a copyvio from a different website, so it has now been speedied (as a copyvio). He also uploaded several pictures of the painter and her work to Commons, which he tagged as his own work but which are obviously scans from newspapers. I've nominated them for deletion as copyvios there too. I've tried communicating with him using his talk page, but he doesn't respond. He seems to have made some effort to fix the tagging of the images on Commons, but it hasn't worked. I'm wondering if he has difficulty understanding English, and if someone could try talking to him in either Hindi or Urdu, to explain why the article was deleted, why the pictures are in danger, figure out where the pictures came from and if they are acceptable for Commons or not, and let him know I'm willing to help him re-write the article, but it can't be a copy-paste from elsewhere on the internet? Thanks. ~ ONUnicorn(Talk|Contribs)problem solving 15:31, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

Detention of Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath

Can someone point out a followup report about what happened after the Detention of Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath? There is an unlimited amount of news about them from 2001, but I couldn't find any source recent enough to say what happened with their passport case. One awkward aspect of this is that per WP:BLP I am retaining the name "Ayub Ali Khan", though the latest source I found alleges that he had a different name and had faked his passport to get a visa. Wnt (talk) 23:02, 5 December 2015 (UTC)

Merge of Indian Ocean Island and North Sentinel Island

Someone created Indian Ocean Island. I've initiated a discussion about merging it with the existing article on North Sentinel Island. —Largo Plazo (talk) 21:57, 24 November 2015 (UTC)

The newer article was deleted by User:Deor as explained at Talk:North Sentinel Island#Proposed_merge_with_Indian_Ocean_Island. —Largo Plazo (talk) 12:52, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Afd waiting for participation

Dear Indian Editor, an article nominated by me for deletion is pending for participation at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Amit Agarwal. Your attention will be appreciated. Cheers! — Sanskari Hangout 14:16, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

Translation help, please

Can anyone help me get the message through to Ravindra kumar Arkavanshi (talk · contribs)? I've no idea where they are getting their (English language) info from in the Arakh article but posts such as this and the lack of responses on their talk page make me think that they may be copy/pasting from somewhere and in fact do not speak English. Thanks. - Sitush (talk) 15:19, 6 December 2015 (UTC)

User:Sitush, This is Hindi. . . This seems to be childish prattle. . . It means. . .
  • ab mujhe btao ki jo ithihaas hai vaise he to likha jayega - now tell me what we call history, we must write on it correctly. .
  • ya wkipedia bhi koi film bnane ka project hai jaha pr apni ulte seedhe vicharo ko jaisa chaho vaisa unke itihaas ki saath kheelwad kro ye jo tm kr rhe ho na baar-2 -- or do you think Wikipedia is a film project where you want to play with history?
  • remove thik nhi kr rhe ho -- I dislike the way my edits are being "removed".
  • aur kis baat ki refrence chahiye tmhe -- and for what you want reference?
  • wikipedia kabhi isi article k khol kr rajyo k padh liya kro wha pr yhi arkavanshi ka description diya hua hai jo maine likha hai koi haawabaaji nhi likhta hoon samjh gye -- I know about this topic, I am not an ordinary person. . . blah, blah. --Tito Dutta (talk) 15:36, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Wikimania 2016 scholarship applications are open

Dear Indic Wikimedians,
Scholarship applications for Wikimania 2016 which is being held in Esino Lario, Italy on June 22–27, 2016 are now being accepted.
If you want to participate in this event, you may apply for a scholarship. Please apply here.
Don't be shy to write about the works you have done on Wikipedia. Write in details.
This year, I am a Wikimania scholarship ambassador. Feel free to ping me if you have any question. Good wishes (Tagging a few editors, sorry if this notification disturbs you: User:AshLin, User:Sanskari, User:AmritasyaPutra, User:Sitush, User:Jim Carter, User:Dharmadhyaksha, User:Human3015, User:Vin09, User:Ugog Nizdast, User:Doncram)--Tito Dutta (talk) 15:55, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Municipal corporations naming

Whether it should be XYZ Municipal Corporation or XYZ municipal corporation?--Vin09 (talk) 06:02, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Former with capital M and C. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:21, 11 December 2015 (UTC)
Thanks.--Vin09 (talk) 06:27, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Krantmlverma's contributions

Someone needs to vet Special:Contributions/Krantmlverma. Although he was blocked in 2012, many of his contributions remain live. There are several instances of historical revisionism in his contributions revolving around Indian independence movement, on both English Wikipedia and Hindi Wikipedia (where he remains unblocked). He has authored some books in Hindi, which are also full of these made-up "facts". Since Wikipedia is mirrored and read widely, he had been using the site to grant these hoaxes some kind of authenticity.

One hoax that I discovered today: Bismil in Turkey is named after Ram Prasad Bismil. This is a hoax created by Krantmlverma, and added to the article with "references" that don't actually support the assertion. But it remained live on Wikipedia since 2011, and now appears on several blogs, forum posts and other sources based on Wikipedia. I've removed it from both English and Hindi Wikipedias.

I'll randomly check the user's other additions, but considering that he has made nearly 2500 edits, any help would be appreciated. utcursch | talk 06:01, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Ouch, I can volunteer too but is there anything to look out for (besides the Bismil hoax)? Anything specific content problems or articles so that we can narrow it down? The range of edits is vast and I'm not sure it would be feasible to look through the entire 2500 edits. Ugog Nizdast (talk) 13:55, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
I cleared out a lot of them around the time he was blocked (I was probably instrumental in getting him blocked, come to think of it). I've often wondered whether the guy really is notable - we have Krant M. L. Verma, which was heavily edited by him using various accounts. - Sitush (talk) 14:36, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
Borderline notability, I guess. You could find some mentions in Hindi sources. Any AfD nomination will probably end up in no consensus and allegations of systemic bias against non-English sources.
As for his hoaxes (and edits), most of them revolve around Indian revolutionaries. Another one I remember is this one about K. B. Hedgewar being involved in Kakori Conspiracy under a different name. The only source that actually mentions this is his own Hindi book.
It's good that Sitush has cleared a lot of his edits. I'll go through this list of his top-edited articles, and see if anything else needs to be taken care of. utcursch | talk 19:37, 12 December 2015 (UTC)

Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham

Can anyone look at Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham article for improvement?--Vin09 (talk) 07:18, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Sambavaram

Dear India experts: Here's a draft about a village. It could use some improvement, especially in the way of reliable sources. Can anyone help?—Anne Delong (talk) 13:41, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

  Done.--Vin09 (talk) 17:20, 15 December 2015 (UTC)

Help with an editor?

Hi! I have an editor, @Palashvai: that has been making various edits that don't really appear to make a whole lot of sense, like this one and someone brought their edits up to ANI. Their name suggests that they're likely from India, so it's possible that they predominantly speak Hindi. Can one of you go and see if this is just a case of a language barrier and if so, see if you can help them out any in what they're looking for? I've pinged them here so they can be aware of this WikiProject. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 06:06, 14 December 2015 (UTC)

The user has been blocked so no further action needed. Thanks for informing the community @Tokyogirl79:. AshLin (talk) 16:07, 14 December 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for informing   --Tito Dutta (talk) 15:11, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Devita Saraf

The article sees a lot of promotional stuff from users and IPs. Few Users have been blocked after Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Cyberhawk 5/Archive. Need help on cleaning up all the hagiography. Thanks to @Shrikanthv: who is doing some cleaning.
Also, I noticed that we had promotional issues at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Vu Digital (2nd nomination). Am not sure if they are same, but Saraf also runs a business named "Vu" in USA. Pinging AfD nominator @DGG: to check if these are all related. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 11:03, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Unrelated. Her's is Vu Telepresence, a video conferencing firm. Vu Digital is part of C Spire Wireless & does digital analytics. There are a number of other companies with similar names, none of which seem to be connected, or notable. DGG ( talk ) 00:33, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Inditva at AFD

There's a lot of comments by new/possibly involved editors at this discussion, so more eyes would be much appreciated. I am not looking for somebody to counter the arguments that have been presented thus far, but for policy-based arguments, none of which have been offered yet. Vanamonde93 (talk) 07:30, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

You have a strange set of people already there. Keep an eye on how they look, swim and quack. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 11:08, 17 December 2015 (UTC)
I had the same thought, at first; but there doesn't seem to be much overlap, two of the accounts have very little activity and two of them are marginally productive at best. No SPI clerk is endorsing a CU on the basis of the AfD alone, and I doubt the quacking is loud enough for somebody to take aim and pull the metaphorical trigger. Hence my post here; my hope is that if enough sensible folks contribute, these random characters will be rendered irrelevant. Dharma, how about you? ;) Vanamonde93 (talk) 11:27, 17 December 2015 (UTC)

Need someone to look at three articles

An editor has inserted images into three articles about Indian places, where the image consists of foreign language text (I'm guessing Hindi). The captions say something about "corruption". I'm concerned that there could be WP:POV or even WP:BLP issues involved. Unfortunately I can't read the language, and since they are images, I can't put the text through a translation program either. If someone with relevant language skills could take a look at the articles on Kolthur, Manikonda, and Shamirpet, that would be much appreciated. Thanks. --RL0919 (talk) 00:35, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

It's not Hindi but probably Telugu. You're probably right about the BLP thing, why not remove the images as failing WP:PERTINENCE for those respective villages? pinging Vin09, can you read it or know anyone who can? Ugog Nizdast (talk) 03:13, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
@RL0919: @Ugog Nizdast: It is about newspaper articles directed at Sarpanch of villages who are corrupted.--Vin09 (talk) 07:27, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for confirming and fixing the issue, Vin09. Ugog Nizdast (talk) 12:47, 19 December 2015 (UTC)
Thank you both. One follow-up question, for Vin09 or anyone else who reads Telugu: Does the content in the files appear to be copied from a newspaper or other copyrighted source? (Especially the image in one looks like an editorial cartoon.) Or does the text in the files name any possibly living individuals? These are being hosted on Wikimedia Commons, so if there are copyright or BLP issues, I will want to initiate deletion discussions there. --RL0919 (talk) 19:10, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

AfD could use comments

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lidhar could use some input. It has been relisted but still has no comments and is at the end of the relisting period. - Sitush (talk) 12:19, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Daiva Dasakam

Does anyone have the ability to bring some sense of order to Daiva Dasakam ? I'm not good on religious texts. - Sitush (talk) 13:17, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

NB: I think it may be copy/pasted in part from this. - Sitush (talk) 13:19, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

This Featured Article on Indian history will appear on the Main Page soon. It mostly follows the lead section; how does it look? - Dank (push to talk) 01:51, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

It looks quite good, just a suggestion: how about mentioning Elephanta Caves too like in the article lead?. I'm concerned though that the article was nominated back in 2007? Is its quality still up to our standards or did it deteriorate? Ugog Nizdast (talk) 14:11, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
Sure, I can mention the caves. How about the article quality? The reason Chris and Brian (my fellow TFA coords) give everyone two weeks notice is so that there will be time to fix articles that have deteriorated. We can pull the article from TFA, but we prefer not to pull it if it can be fixed. - Dank (push to talk) 15:24, 16 December 2015 (UTC)
I'm not familiar with this topic well enough but I'll give it a read and check what I can. Wish I knew someone who knew. Anyway, will report back when I'm done. Ugog Nizdast (talk) 13:50, 17 December 2015 (UTC)
@Dank: Okay, I'm done and cancel that Elephanta thing. It's disputed according to the article. Fortunately, two more editors have joined in and edited the article; two issues have been raised on talk. I think it can be fixed but we need the major contributor/someone with access to the sources, right? Overall, the article seems just OK, I guess the standards years ago were not that high. Ugog Nizdast (talk) 14:19, 21 December 2015 (UTC)
On average, requirements at FAC have climbed over time (and quality as well, some say). Thanks much for your help with this. - Dank (push to talk) 15:15, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Editing dispute needs a third eye

See Talk:Shahnawaz Choudhary#Listing state-level party-organization offices in the infobox. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Davidwr (talkcontribs) 04:14, 4 November 2015

Adding sub-sub-project (third level) support in Wikiproject India Template

When using the the India template, currently we have support for adding names of states, which corresponds to articles related to that state, and acts as a subproject. For example, for any page related to Rajasthan, i add {:{WikiProject India|rajasthan=yes}:} in the talk page. In this manner, all articles written for Wikiproject Rajasthan automatically adds up to WikiProject India.
I suggest to add support for third level support for cities, which would correspond to dedicated projects for those cities as well. So to mark any Udaipur related article, i would add {:{WikiProject India|rajasthan=yes|Udaipur=yes}:} which would mean this article is under project Udaipur, which is under project Rajasthan, which in turn is under project India. This will create a hierarchy for all articles, while saving efforts for managing different city level project as we currently have. This will also allow us to add as many city level projects without need for dedicated team for managing each city level projects. - — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vishal0soni (talkcontribs)

Need some serious help

Hey guys, I have a seriously huge favor to ask. Recently I came across an article that I ended up deleting as an article created by an editor evading a block/ban. A look at his article creation history shows that he'd made over 900 pages during his time on here. Many of these are film related and some appear to be potentially noteworthy, so I don't want to just mass delete articles that could potentially be of use. The editor in question is Rajeshbieee.

Would any of you be willing to go through the articles and QC them? If they're not notable then all I'd need is for the article to be tagged as a WP:G5. I'm aware that this will be a massive undertaking that will probably take weeks at minimum to go through unless we do a mass deletion, but I think that it'd be best for Wikipedia if we did this. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 11:07, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

  • I have just checked one and G5'd it but, honestly, we're going to duplicate a lot of effort if people just use the Articles Created tool - we'll be repeatedly checking stuff that has already been checked by someone in good standing. It might be easier to mass delete in full knowledge that if something is notable then it will be recreated sooner or later. - Sitush (talk) 11:38, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
  • That's not a bad idea either. I am worried that keeping these may be seen as an encouragement to the sockpuppeteer. If you think that this is best, I'll follow your lead. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 11:41, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
  • I G5d a couple of these, and left another couple alone because they seemed notable. After thinking on it, though, I don't think a mass delete will be that much of a problem, because even the pages on topics that seem notable on the face of it, are not particularly high quality; witness this. Mass delete by all means, if it's more convenient. Vanamonde93 (talk) 12:50, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
In the end of the day, it is here: Wikipedia:INDIA/Rajeshbieee--Ymblanter (talk) 14:29, 23 December 2015 (UTC)
  • The only big discussions at this point are at ANI, here, and at the page Brianhe listed above. I don't think that the SPI is still open or not - I came into this via the speedy deletion stuff. In any case, my point in mentioning this is that I don't anticipate there being any other discussion elsewhere since it's pretty well contained in those locations at this point in time. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 05:33, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Renaming of Pushpagiri Vihara article

I would like to invite members of this project to provide their comments on requested page move. Tiggerjay (talk) 22:05, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Right link of discussion is at Talk:Pushpagiri Vihara. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 07:28, 23 December 2015 (UTC)

GA of Virat Kohli

Kohli has been recently passed as GA by a sock user Numerounovedant (talk · contribs · count) and also happens to be nominated by new-ish editor Dee03 (talk · contribs · count). Am no expert in cricket and also lack fundamental knowledge of the sport. (Yeah yeah its fine! Not every Indian has to love cricket.) So requesting editors to check if the article is suitable for the GA tag. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:42, 22 December 2015 (UTC)

Pinging previous reviewer @Vensatry: §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:43, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
I've not looked into the article yet. Although there is no clear guideline, don't you think the review should be considered faulty (given the reviewer was a sockpuppet)? Vensatry (Talk) 07:07, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
I am in dilemma while dealing with sock edits; at times article perfectly notable are deleted just because a sock has created them and on other hand we don't do that even if the tone is promotional or such. Anyways... pinging @QEDK: who tagged all sockpuppet GAs for speedy but maybe left this sockmaster GA for some purpose. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 08:24, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
@Dharmadhyaksha: I only tagged the sockpuppet's GA reviews for speedy deletion. The sockmaster's GA reviews must now either be reassessed or reverted back to their previous status. --QEDK (TC) 08:27, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
I was gonna guess that. Thanks! §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 08:28, 22 December 2015 (UTC)
"New-ish editor"? Define "new-ish editor", would you? Dee03 06:01, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
Its English. If you don't understand it you aren't WP:COMPETENT enough to be editing here. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 06:31, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
Yeah? And where did you learn your English? From those stupid Bollywood movies? There's a difference between "its" and "it's". Dee03 07:43, 24 December 2015 (UTC)
  • Getting back to the topic; I had a quick look. I am unfamiliar with sports articles, but it seems to me that the prose is a trifle jargonish. Or maybe jargon is not the right word; but it assumes that the reader has some background knowledge of the Indian cricket team during the period being described. eg; "The exclusion of Yuvraj from the Test squad meant that the number six position was a competition between Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who was yet to make his Test debut.[122] Kohli top-scored with 132 in a tour match against Cricket Australia Chairman's XI and strengthened his case for a spot in the Boxing Day Test." Now this might be routine in a cricket article, in which case you can just ignore my comment; but my instinct says this should be delisted and added back to the queue, in the position it would have occupied had the sockmaster not picked it up. It would then be reviewed sooner than a simple renomination. Vanamonde93 (talk) 07:51, 24 December 2015 (UTC)

Reference title with Indic script

The sixth reference at Vindhyan Ecology and Natural History Foundation shows a strange CS1 error, apparently because the character "त्‍ " which occurs in the reference's title is considered to contain something invisible that shouldn't be there. Help by someone more experienced with Indic scripts would be appreciated. Huon (talk) 04:02, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

Changed छत्‍तीसगढ़ to छत्तीसगढ़ utcursch | talk 04:16, 25 December 2015 (UTC)

Draft:Aale Ahmed Shah

Please would experienced editors take this draft on? The submitting editor has placed a plea for help at the AFC Helpdesk and I think the draft is likely to have merit. They have stated a very large unfamiliarity with English and need proactive help, please. Fiddle Faddle 15:36, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Nawabs of Bengal and Murshidabad

This 2012 GA has deteriorated and is being GARed. Pinging earlier GA involved editors @Tamravidhir, Titodutta, and Thine Antique Pen: §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 04:21, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

AfC submission

See Draft:Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta. Thank you, FoCuS contribs; talk to me! 23:34, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

Check for foreign language sources?

I just created the article for Thanichalla Njan and while it got some coverage of its filming process and some major awards, there are no reviews out there that I can find. Can one of you take a look to see what you can find? It was filmed in Malayalam, if that helps any. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 10:31, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/January 1 in India

A new series of articles has been started as a solo effort. If it's to be carried through and maintained it'll need significant input from the members of this project. Please join the discussion. Bazj (talk) 12:43, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

  • Namaste and welcome to WikiProject India noticeboard. In my opinion, these articles are unnecessary. Let's see if editors ask for speedy deletion in that discussion (I have seen your tagging). --Tito Dutta (talk) 13:33, 3 January 2016 (UTC)
    • My instinct is to suggest merging back into the parent article, but this is actually a tricky issue, because really the question is whether the list is better presented for the whole world or divided by country. This means we need to decide what our threshold is for including events/births/deaths; if there are a very large number, then splitting makes sense. What are folks' thoughts on this? Vanamonde93 (talk) 16:02, 3 January 2016 (UTC)
      • the question is whether the list is better presented for the whole world or divided by country -- Hm that's an interesting point. --Tito Dutta (talk) 17:10, 3 January 2016 (UTC)
        • Whether the information is better conveyed in 366 articles or in 366 days * 200ish countries = 73200 articles ?
        • What happens when something notable happens in a less wikied country? Does it go unrecorded because there is no January 8 in Tajikistan?
        • [And, forgive me if this is clumsily articulated...] If this is a solo initiative, motivated by national pride [and don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with national pride], how will it look for national pride if it's not carried through to completion? It needs to be all or nothing. To be "all", I think it needs the support of WPIndia. By the reaction to the question so far, I don't think the initiative has that support. Bazj (talk) 11:11, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Ssshhhh...Koi Hai

I came across this one editor via the speedy deletion stuff and it took me a while, but it looks like they're trying to create season and character pages for the series Ssshhhh...Koi Hai. I've left a message asking them not to create any articles in the mainspace since they're either incomplete, lack context, and/or are redundant to the main series pages, and to try making them in their userspace first. They seem pretty eager and I think that they mean well, but need some guidance. I can help to a degree, but some of the stuff will require someone that's passing familiar with the series, like the list pages. There's a reasonable justification for season pages if the coverage is there, given that it's an anthology series, but I'm not pulling up a huge-huge amount of sourcing and this would take a lot of time, which I don't entirely have at the moment, so I'm posting here. The editor in question is Villayat1990 and like I said, they seem to be eager and editing in good faith. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 10:24, 11 January 2016 (UTC)

Notability check needed

@Titodutta, Rsrikanth05, and Human3015: Dwaraka Bus station Complex, List of busiest railway stations in Andhra Pradesh, Eluru New Bus station, NTR bus station articles needs notability check.--Vin09(talk) 03:40, 1 January 2016 (UTC)

Looking. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 07:02, 2 January 2016 (UTC)
I am uncertain about the notability of train related articles, but this much is clear; "List of busiest railway stations in Andhra Pradesh" is completely original research, because it does not, at any point, demonstrate that the stations listed there are the busiest. All it does is to use a website to describe traffic at each of the stations in the list. How each station was placed in the list is unclear. I will send to AfD soon, unless somebody raises a significant counter-argument here. Vanamonde93 (talk) 07:31, 2 January 2016 (UTC)
Dwarka Bus Station seems to satisfy GNG.--Rsrikanth05 (talk) 07:55, 2 January 2016 (UTC)
@Rsrikanth05:Some cleanup and copyedit needed in Dwaraka Bus station, especially Expansion section. Also, the title is it Bus Station? or bus station as per railway station.--Vin09(talk) 08:11, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

@Vin09:, Aah, yes, I realise my folly when I was moving the page. I left the B in uppercase. Dwarka bus station would be appropriate. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 16:50, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

@Human3015: NTR bus station was earlier deleted for WP:Notability. I couldn't get it. Can you see if it is now proper.--Vin09(talk) 15:22, 12 January 2016 (UTC)
NTR bus station seems ok. Not every bus station is notable, but this bus station is in Guntur city which is a big city. Also bus stations are usually not named after any person, but this bus station is named after NTR. So this can be a special case. Also there is no link of the discussion of previous AfD on talk page of article. But as far as my opinion is concern I will go for "keep" if there would have been an AfD. --Human3015Let It Go  15:33, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Vallal T.N. Sabapathy Mudaliar

Can anyone improve Vallal T.N. Sabapathy Mudaliar? It relies entirely on a caste association website at the moment. I'm not sure whether the chap is really notable outside of that association, which he founded. He was apparently a mayor vice-chairman of a council for some years but that doesn't usually mean much for GNG unless the office was mayor for a major city.

If it is worth keeping, I'm pretty sure that the article needs to be moved because Vallal is apparently an honorific, although not one I can recall seeing before. - Sitush (talk) 14:44, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Gungal (tribe)

Input requested, please. - Sitush (talk) 07:45, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

This is now resolved, thanks. - Sitush (talk) 14:47, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Jallikattu

Fresh eyes needed due the influx of Pongal related activity from POV warriors. Any help appreciated. 122.174.34.100 (talk) 06:39, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Fly Away SoloMasaan page-move discussion

A request to move the film article Fly Away Solo to Masaan, has been initiated here. You are welcome to contribute to the discussion.—indopug (talk) 07:35, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

Karinkallathani

There is an interesting new article on Karinkallathani, which should now be reviewed and improved, please. --NearEMPTiness (talk) 20:49, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

I think its a hamlet, so there are very few references supporting it. The article is full of WP:OR. cleaned some and added a ref.--Vin09(talk) 03:52, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha

Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha and Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha. Are they smiilar articles?--Vin09(talk) 13:19, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Both are two separate Institutes and hence two independent articles - Ninney (talk) 13:29, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Suicide of Rohith Vemula

Another hot button issue that requires experienced eyes from this board. Should the text of the suicide note be included in the article? especially when the TOI source mentions "following is the suicide note allegedly written by Rohith." 106.51.28.153 (talk) 11:57, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Talk:Movie theater

Move discussion underway, again. In ictu oculi (talk) 14:38, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Geographical Indications in India Edit-a-thon

Hello,

 

CIS-A2K is going to organize an edit-a-thon between 25 and 31 January this year. The aim of this edit-a-thon is creating and improving Geographical Indications in India related articles.

We welcome all of you to join this edit-a-thon.
Please see the event and add your name as a participant: meta:CIS-A2K/Events/Geographical_Indications_in_India_Edit-a-thon

Feel free to ask if you have question(s).
Regards. --Tito Dutta (talk) 18:00, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

@Titodutta: What actually we need to do? There are a list of articles in Telugu in that page.--Vin09(talk) 18:03, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
@Titodutta: *Kondapalli Bommalu article already as Kondapalli_Toys. So do we need to improve it?

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mircea Itul

One of the premier Indologists in the world is having the article about him being discussed for deletion. 7&6=thirteen () 18:14, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Premier Indologist? Wow, I've never heard of him! Must show how ignorant I am. I think the tone of your message is a bit suspect. - Sitush (talk) 20:20, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
I am modifying this to put backSitush 's commments. I deleted them inadvertently. We will debate the merits at the Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mircea Itul
I am also putting in a factual statemment.
An Indologist is having the article about him being discussed for deletion. Please take a look and offer your opinion. 7&6=thirteen () 20:51, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

GI edit-a-thon 2016 updates

Geographical Indications in India Edit-a-thon 2016 has started, if you have not signed up still, please consider joining now.

 
Updates

Here are a few updates:

  1. More than 80 Wikipedians have joined this edit-a-thon
  2. More than 20 articles have been created/expanded already (this may not be the exact number, see "Ideas" section #1 below)
  3. Infobox geographical indication has been started on English Wikipedia. You may help to create a similar template for on your Wikipedia.
Become GI edit-a-thon language ambassador

If you are an experienced editor, become an ambassador. Ambassadors are community representatives and they will review articles created during this edit-a-thon, and perform a few other administrative tasks.

Translate the Meta event page

Please translate this event page into your own language. Event page has been started in Bengali, English and Telugu, please start a similar page on your Wikipedia too.

Ideas
  1. Please report the articles you are creating or expanding here. It'll be difficult for us to count or review articles unless you report it.
  2. These articles may also be created or expanded:

See more ideas and share your own here.

Further updates

Please keep checking the Meta-Wiki event page for the latest updates. --MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:33, 27 January 2016 (UTC)

Template:Gotras of Jats

Many pages about Gotras are unsourced and very short. If the subject is notable, please create sourced and informative pages. Xx236 (talk) 13:19, 21 January 2016 (UTC) KarwalXx236 (talk) 13:58, 26 January 2016 (UTC) Aujla - one of the shortest pages in this WIkipedia.Xx236 (talk) 14:15, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

Subhas Chandra Bose

This article has recently become a hotbed for edit warring and I feel a lot of PoV has crept in. I am having trouble eliciting much contriubtion either in the talk page (Fowler&fowler being the only editor who has responded, once or twice) but many editors reverting. I might have blinkers on, would appreciate contributions or opinion of other editors.rueben_lys (talk · contribs) 19:01, 31 January 2016 (UTC)

Padma Vibhushan

Hi all, can anyone tell me what the "Award rank" parameter in Template:Infobox Indian Awards actually represents? the next highest/lowest award or the Precedence Of Medals? [12] [13] The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 18:46, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, that's what it is. See for example, Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan. utcursch | talk 22:15, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
Yeah, it was recently changed by an editor [14]. The order in the infobox used to be Bharat Ratna → Padma Vibhushan → Padma Bhushan → Padma Shri whereas now it is Bharat Ratna →Param Vir Chakra →Ashoka Chakra→ Padma Vibhushan→ Padma Bhushan→ Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal etc. Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan are civilian awards whereas Param Vir Chakra, Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal and the likes are military decorations. I'm wondering whether the parameter was originally meant to incorporate everything together or separately as Civilian and Military: Wartime/Peacetime/Distinguished Service etc. like in the case of Template:Indian honours and decorations? The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 07:20, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
Well, it's referenced. utcursch | talk 15:16, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
The reference refers to the WEARING of the medals, not the rank/precedence itself. Logically we should differentiate between the Military and civilian Awards, because, well they are different categories. Agrawal.akshay98 (talk) 06:13, 30 January 2016 (UTC)
The template has a parameter "type" which takes the value as Civilian. For the military awards, we already have another infobox template Template:Infobox military award. These both should not be mixed. Keep the civilian awards and their ranks as earlier. - Vivvt (Talk) 07:49, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Hindi sources?

I was wondering if anyone could take a look for Hindi language sources for Raj Comics. The line is predominantly published in Hindi, so it stands to reason that most of the coverage wouldn't be in English. It looks like it should be notable, so I'm not worried about that, mostly it's just that the article needs some confirmation here and there. The original state of the article was fairly bad, as it had some fanboy tones, no true sourcing, and also had content that was undated and was very likely out of date. If anyone else can find something to add to the article to improve it, that'd be awesome. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 10:10, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Bombay Talkies and Raj Narayan Dube: Hoax?

In the 2010s, one Abhay Dube launched a company called "The Bombay Talkies Limited". He claims that this is a continuation of the historic Bombay Talkies. He also claims that his grandfather Raj Narayan Dube was one of the founders of the original Bombay Talkies along with Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. Since then, several press-release like newspaper stories have appeared talking about this "revival of Bombay Talkies" and how Raj Narayan Dube was a "pillar" of Indian cinema.

This article from 2013 mentions that "the idea to revive the production house took shape three years ago" i.e. in 2010. That year, the name "Raj Narayan Dube" was added to the Bombay Talkies article on Wikipedia, by an anon, without any source. In 2015, a new article on Raj Narayan Dube was created. Recently, the article Bombay Talkies was re-written using these sources, by BT0912 (talk · contribs), who claims to the Digital Head of the new company. Also,

MelAntipam (talk · contribs) has raised some concerns at Talk:Bombay Talkies, which caught my eye. I tried searching for this name and its variations: Raj Narayan / RN Dubey / Rajnarayan Dubey(y). But I cannot find any mention of this guy in even a single source before 2010, which is surprising if he was indeed, one of the founders of a famous studio like Bombay Talkies. There is only one book (Spot Girl, 2014) which mentions Raj Narayan Dube and Bombay Talkies - it's not a scholarly work, and is obviously based on information from the Wikipedia article or other articles that sprung after the "revival" press release in 2013.

Can anyone else find a pre-2010 source about this Dube-Bombay Talkies link? Any comments are appreciated at Talk:Bombay_Talkies#Errors_in_the_current_version. utcursch | talk 19:46, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Raj Narayan Dube. utcursch | talk 20:37, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Padma Vibhushan

Hi all, can anyone tell me what the "Award rank" parameter in Template:Infobox Indian Awards actually represents? the next highest/lowest award or the Precedence Of Medals? [15] [16] The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 18:46, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, that's what it is. See for example, Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan. utcursch | talk 22:15, 28 January 2016 (UTC)
Yeah, it was recently changed by an editor [17]. The order in the infobox used to be Bharat Ratna → Padma Vibhushan → Padma Bhushan → Padma Shri whereas now it is Bharat Ratna →Param Vir Chakra →Ashoka Chakra→ Padma Vibhushan→ Padma Bhushan→ Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal etc. Bharat Ratna and Padma Vibhushan are civilian awards whereas Param Vir Chakra, Sarvottam Yudh Seva Medal and the likes are military decorations. I'm wondering whether the parameter was originally meant to incorporate everything together or separately as Civilian and Military: Wartime/Peacetime/Distinguished Service etc. like in the case of Template:Indian honours and decorations? The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 07:20, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
Well, it's referenced. utcursch | talk 15:16, 29 January 2016 (UTC)
The reference refers to the WEARING of the medals, not the rank/precedence itself. Logically we should differentiate between the Military and civilian Awards, because, well they are different categories. Agrawal.akshay98 (talk) 06:13, 30 January 2016 (UTC)
The template has a parameter "type" which takes the value as Civilian. For the military awards, we already have another infobox template Template:Infobox military award. These both should not be mixed. Keep the civilian awards and their ranks as earlier. - Vivvt (Talk) 07:49, 1 February 2016 (UTC)

Hindi sources?

I was wondering if anyone could take a look for Hindi language sources for Raj Comics. The line is predominantly published in Hindi, so it stands to reason that most of the coverage wouldn't be in English. It looks like it should be notable, so I'm not worried about that, mostly it's just that the article needs some confirmation here and there. The original state of the article was fairly bad, as it had some fanboy tones, no true sourcing, and also had content that was undated and was very likely out of date. If anyone else can find something to add to the article to improve it, that'd be awesome. Tokyogirl79 (。◕‿◕。) 10:10, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Bombay Talkies and Raj Narayan Dube: Hoax?

In the 2010s, one Abhay Dube launched a company called "The Bombay Talkies Limited". He claims that this is a continuation of the historic Bombay Talkies. He also claims that his grandfather Raj Narayan Dube was one of the founders of the original Bombay Talkies along with Himanshu Rai and Devika Rani. Since then, several press-release like newspaper stories have appeared talking about this "revival of Bombay Talkies" and how Raj Narayan Dube was a "pillar" of Indian cinema.

This article from 2013 mentions that "the idea to revive the production house took shape three years ago" i.e. in 2010. That year, the name "Raj Narayan Dube" was added to the Bombay Talkies article on Wikipedia, by an anon, without any source. In 2015, a new article on Raj Narayan Dube was created. Recently, the article Bombay Talkies was re-written using these sources, by BT0912 (talk · contribs), who claims to the Digital Head of the new company. Also,

MelAntipam (talk · contribs) has raised some concerns at Talk:Bombay Talkies, which caught my eye. I tried searching for this name and its variations: Raj Narayan / RN Dubey / Rajnarayan Dubey(y). But I cannot find any mention of this guy in even a single source before 2010, which is surprising if he was indeed, one of the founders of a famous studio like Bombay Talkies. There is only one book (Spot Girl, 2014) which mentions Raj Narayan Dube and Bombay Talkies - it's not a scholarly work, and is obviously based on information from the Wikipedia article or other articles that sprung after the "revival" press release in 2013.

Can anyone else find a pre-2010 source about this Dube-Bombay Talkies link? Any comments are appreciated at Talk:Bombay_Talkies#Errors_in_the_current_version. utcursch | talk 19:46, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Nominated for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Raj Narayan Dube. utcursch | talk 20:37, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

Dandaka

Are Dandaka and Dandakaranya both same pages.--Vin09(talk) 04:39, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, same topic. Should be merged. utcursch | talk 04:59, 3 February 2016 (UTC)
@Utcursch: could you do it, I am unaware which one is a genuine one.--Vin09(talk) 07:10, 3 February 2016 (UTC)
I've tagged both the articles for merging. Will merge in a few days if nobody removes the tag. utcursch | talk 13:04, 3 February 2016 (UTC)

File:Varanasi ghats, Ganga river, India, 1899.webm

Hi, One source says it is Varanasi, another Calcutta. Who is right? Thanks for your help, Yann (talk) 16:25, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

@Yann: PANORAMA OF CALCUTTA, INDIA, FROM THE RIVER GANGES. - Although released under the title ‘Panorama of Calcutta’, the film actually represents Varanasi, which is 400 miles further up the Ganges. Cinema Vision India suggested in 1980 that the film should have been titled ‘Panorama of Benares’ – as it shows the Benares Ghats – and the listing within the Warwick catalogue avoids specific geographical references (Cinema Vision India, 1980, 104). Warwick’s decision to specify the location as Calcutta may indicate a desire to reference places familiar to British audiences, and to uniformly present these disparate places and images within India – and the East – under broader terms (eg. India and Calcutta), which, in turn, helped audiences to understand and imagine a controlled Indian space. The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 16:31, 4 February 2016 (UTC)
Thanks a lot. I added that reference to the description. Regards, Yann (talk) 00:22, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Help with citation in Heart article

Hello hardworking editors! I am working on the Heart article with some other editors and we have reached a loggerheads in the "Society and culture" section with some of the sourcing. I'd be very grateful if a knowledgable editor could expand this brief sentence about the history of the heart in Sanskrit, and if an editor knowledgable in Ayuvedic medicine could expand it with 1-2 sentences regarding its importance:

The Sanskrit word for heart, hRd (हृद्), dates at least as far back as the Rigveda and is a cognate of the word for heart in Greek, Latin, and English. The same word is used to mean "mind" or "soul" depending on the context.

Hoping to hear from you soon, --Tom (LT) (talk) 03:24, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

@LT910001: You can use these:
The Problem of Mind in Eastern Philosophy by Hajime Nakamura:
"The Sanskrit equivalent to heart is hṛd or hṛdaya. In the Rigveda hṛd (heart) was regarded as the abode of mental functions, feelings or emotions. Hṛd derived from the same etymological origin as Greek kardia, Latin cor (cordis), German Herz and English heart."
A Sanskrit Reader by Charles Rockwell Lanman:
"hṛd [397], n. heart; esp. as seat of the emotions and of mental activity in general..."
"hṛdaya, n. heart; — 1. prop, heart, as an organ of the body..."
utcursch | talk 06:50, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
@LT910001: That sentence might have some issues: a) There is no Sanskrit text older than the Rigveda, so "at least" is not needed. b) Although older dictionaries and comparative linguistics texts might have included Sanskrid hRd in the etymology of the English, "heart," modern ones do not. They go no farther east in the Indo-European languages tree than Hittite (Turkey) or Slavic. Here are three:
OED (3rd edition, June 2013): Heart (etymology) A word inherited from Germanic. Cognate with Old Frisian herte, hirte (West Frisian hert), ... hiærtæ (Danish hjerte), Gothic hairto < the same Indo-European base as classical Latin cord-, cor heart, ancient Greek καρδία, κραδία heart, also part of the stomach (the cardiac orifice or the cardia) (also κῆρ heart), Early Irish cride heart, Welsh craidd centre, heart, Lithuanian šerdis, Old Church Slavonic srĭdĭtse, srŭdĭtse heart (Russian serdce, Czech srdce); further etymology uncertain.
Webster's Unabridged: Origin of HEART Middle English hert, from Old English heorte; akin to Old High German herza heart, Old Norse hjarta, Gothic hairto, Latin cord-, cor, Old Irish cride, Greek kardia, Armenian sirt, Hittite karts
Online Etymology Dictionary: Old English heorte "heart (hollow muscular organ that circulates blood); breast, soul, spirit, will, desire; courage; mind, intellect," from Proto-Germanic *herton- (cognates: Old Saxon herta, Old Frisian herte, Old Norse hjarta, Dutch hart, Old High German herza, German Herz, Gothic hairto), from PIE *kerd- (1) "heart" (cognates: Greek kardia, Latin cor, Old Irish cride, Welsh craidd, Hittite kir, Lithuanian širdis, Russian serdce "heart," Breton kreiz "middle," Old Church Slavonic sreda "middle").
The online etymology dictionary suggests (or rather conjectures) that the Proto-Indo-European base is kerd. Even if we were allowed to engage in OR/synthesis on Wikipedia, one would still need some other reference that points to a relation between PIE kerd and Vedic Sanskrit hRd. In other words, it is best to avoid the "cognate" bit and simply say, "The Sanskrit word for heart is hṛd or hṛdaya, which is found in the oldest extant Sanskrit text, the Rigveda, composed ca. 1500 BCE–1200 BCE." and then go into the Ayurvedic medicine sentence bit. One will still need a solid source for the Rigveda part. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 11:40, 5 February 2016 (UTC)
PS And here is a fairly solid source: Sven Sellmer (2004), "The Heart in the Ŗg veda", in Piotr Balcerowicz, Marek Mejor (eds) (ed.), Essays in Indian Philosophy, Religion and Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, pp. 71–83, ISBN 978-81-208-1978-8 {{citation}}: |editor= has generic name (help) If you click on the title, you will reach page 71; if you are unable to, let me know and I'll copy the relevant text here. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 12:10, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your help. I have put this in the article. I have changed the etymological reference to "may" and left it in, because I think it's an interesting afternote:

The Sanskrit word for heart is hṛd or hṛdaya, found in the oldest surviving Sanskrit text, the Rigveda. In Sanskirt, it may mean both the anatomical object and "mind" or "soul", representing the seat of emotion. Hrd may be a cognate of the word for heart in Greek, Latin, and English.[1][2]

Thanks very much for your help! --Tom (LT) (talk) 21:03, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

References

  1. ^ Sven Sellmer (2004), "The Heart in the Ŗg veda", in Piotr Balcerowicz, Marek Mejor (eds) (ed.), Essays in Indian Philosophy, Religion and Literature, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, pp. 71–83, ISBN 978-81-208-1978-8 {{citation}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Lanman, Charles Rockwell (1996). A Sanskrit reader : text and vocabulary and notes (repr ed.). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. p. 287. ISBN 9788120813632.

Spam?

Are these links on may websites proper (official)? On many district pages with population clock.--Vin09(talk) 06:28, 5 February 2016 (UTC)

Don't look official, but if we're talking reliable, I think you better take this to the WP:RSN. I would be interested to see the outcome. Ugog Nizdast (talk) 14:04, 6 February 2016 (UTC)
According to [18], the site is a private initiative. It also appears to be ad supported. I'd say, definitely not a reliable source.--regentspark (comment) 14:08, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Nida Fazli

I have nominated the above article to appear on the Main Page as Recent Death. Please voice your opinions at Wikipedia:In the news/Candidates#RD: Nida Fazli. Thanks, --Skr15081997 (talk) 08:56, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

SI Units

User:Just a guy from the KP is on a rapid run of typos of changing the units across many pages. See his/her contributions. Am unsure of whether it is right or wrong. Someone relevant to this shall address this. --βα£α(ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ) 10:24, 11 February 2016 (UTC)

Hello Balablitz, I'm not sure quite what your concern is. His corrections look satisfactory to me. Please see Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Dates_and_numbers#Unit_names_and_symbols, it does indicate that the changes User:Just a guy from the KP are acceptable. Are you concerned simply that he's making a lot of changes all at once? Chrisw80 (talk) 16:25, 11 February 2016 (UTC)
@Titodutta: You're right, I have been manually updating those pages. There are lots of false positives. When I started there were approximately 1000 pages containing "kms", now there are just shy of 600. I've just started working on fixing variations of "k.m.", which has even more false positives! I haven't tried any of the automated tools yet, at this point I'm more comfortable doing it manually. Just a guy from the KP (talk) 23:07, 12 February 2016 (UTC)
Thanks all for the clarifications. --βα£α(ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ) 13:55, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

Mhasavad jalgaon

The new page Mhasavad jalgaon, as created, is an abvious copy of text from another WP page. A search for "with rich black soil and uses advanced irrigation " originally resulted in hits on 6 article pages, a user page and a user sandbox.[19] I have now queried 2 users about their use of this exact phrase, so 2 more hits now. Khadakdeola seem likely to have been the 'source' as that page is mentioned on pages that are not about that village ie. Sonale.

Any idea what might be going on here? The pages involved seem to have been created by different new editors up to a year ago.220 of Borg 13:42, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

Yes seems to be copied from a age.--Vin09(talk) 13:47, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
There's nothing like Mhasavad jalgaon. There are also pages like Mhaswad, Mhasawad.--Vin09(talk) 14:00, 13 February 2016 (UTC)

Chittur

Are Chittur and Chittur (village) same articles?--Vin09(talk) 17:05, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

@Vin09: I assume, they are most likely same. Hope @Naveenpf and @Arunvrparavur or any other Kerala based user may clarify this. --βα£α(ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ) 20:13, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
Yes Vin09 and ᶀᶅᶖᵵᵶ, both the articles representing the same place. There is only one Chittur in Palakkad district and the mentioned(in Chittur (village) article) Nalleppilly and Thekkedesom panchayaths are so close to Chittur. So I suggest to merge the article Chittur (village) with Chittur. Arunvrparavur (talk) 06:48, 15 February 2016 (UTC)

Airports

Most of them are adding like Nearby airports are xxxx to the village. I think it looks like wiki voyage. Is it really necessary to add Airports in transport section for even smaller villages of an article? I say if the airport exists for a city or town, it can be added in that page and also in the particular village which lies on the outskirts of it. But can we add in all the village pages which lies in that district? Need opinions. Also, please propose a standard on transport section.--Vin09(talk) 12:05, 10 February 2016 (UTC)

Where it is clear that mention of airports is inappropriate or unduly detailed information, I would just remove it (and sometimes also railway transport), and let someone argue for keeping it. In the past the recommendations for cities, at [[20]] have sometimes been inappropriately applied to all settlements. While it is clear now that it is not applicable to anything but cities, it has always been so. As I remember, some tourism promoting editors were anxious to include mention of how to get to the most minor tourism sites. Imc (talk) 17:37, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
@Imc: Also, could you provide your opinions on adding sections like railways, roadways, airports etc., or to write in a prose form without sub headings?--Vin09(talk) 17:43, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
I don't think transport sections are appropriate at all for most villages or smaller towns, until the article gets detailed and needs breaking up into sections. And then there should sufficient detailed content to put into a 'transport' section, perhaps at least a couple of sentences. There are few village articles with any detailed content. What might be useful is statements like 'there are good paved road connections with regular buses to xxx'. No need to mention railways at all (or airports, ferries, or others) unless there is a station nearby and people are likely to use it. All this is my opinion only of course, and there may be other more useful suggestions in the talk pages of the Indian cities project, or other similar projects. Imc (talk) 18:36, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
It is for Indian villages/smaller towns specifically and not for other countries.--Vin09(talk) 05:19, 18 February 2016 (UTC)

Are primary sources not accepted where there are no secondary sources?

Hi, I recently tried to edit Mathur Vaishya and re-add the information back to the page which was earlier there. The information was based on the primary citations. Indian castes do not have much online content out there. Also this field faces language barrier. Please advise whether primary citation can be used in this case or not? I've also raised this issue over Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Noticeboard#Is primary source not acceptable for Indian caste? and believe participation from Indian community is needed here. Mr RD 19:46, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

Title

List of State Highways in Andhra Pradesh or List of state highways in Andhra Pradesh. Which one is correct? Consider List of National Highways in India by State.--Vin09(talk) 08:24, 22 February 2016 (UTC)

User:Titodutta So, now which one to keep S or s?--Vin09(talk) 04:50, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
Thank you.--Vin09(talk) 05:00, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

The Doctor who started a University

BLP on Dr. U. Bapputty Haji has mentioned Darul Huda Islamic University which doesn't exist. It is a diploma mill and the organization is not approved by the University Grants Commission, Newdelhi. --Prof TPMS (talk) 14:41, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

  • Prof TPMS, as far as I can understand the article won't be deleted under WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES. There are a few things you may consider:
  1. "Is it a WP:HOAX?" -- does not seem to be, even if is not a University
  2. "Is it a higher education?" -- if yes, I feel the article will be kept per WP:SCHOOLOUTCOMES
  3. "Does the article content promotional content?" -- if yes, clean-up/tag accordingly, and finally
  4. Further explain your point "it is a diploma mill and the organization is not approved by the University Grants Commission" in the deletion discussion/article talk. What needs to be changed? --Tito Dutta (talk) 20:40, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
Dear Tito Dutta, Darul Huda Academy is not an unexisting organization. It is a Madrassah in Chemmad with elaborate facilities for the study of Islamic History and literature. But they have not got approval from the federal agencies to start a university. The foreign Islamic agency that accredited it and their credentials are unknown to me and not easily verifiable. The teachers in Darul Huda are not qualified people either, they have passed their school finals and then underwent some nine year course in a similar 'university'. Regards, Prof TPMS (talk) 01:47, 20 February 2016 (UTC)

Jat protests

This article seems to be woefully inadequate: Jat reservation agitation. Is there another article on this topic? utcursch | talk 16:01, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

Agree with this. Schools closed in Delhi, water crisis, we do need more detail. --regentspark (comment) 16:16, 21 February 2016 (UTC)
I doubt there is any. I have checked Jat people, Haryana and Reservation in India. There is no mention of this anywhere. I guess the said article is the one which would need expansion. -- Pankaj Jain Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count) 17:30, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
I've expanded the article. Request other editors to add it to their watchlist -- the previous versions contained a lot of unsourced POV and badly formatted content. utcursch | talk 04:43, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

About new article Kumar Suvarna Chandrak

Hi all,
I note that there are only two google hits for this exact name. Should it be redirected or merged to some other article?
Pete AU aka --Shirt58 (talk) 10:25, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

@Shirt58: Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs· FENS · JSTOR · TWL
Better known just as "Kumar Chandrak". Seems to be notable on its own. The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 10:39, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

K. B. Hedgewar

Could someone here take a look at this article. An IP using a proxy server has added a lot of information to the article which may or may not be true, but oddly also added [citation needed] tags after what they had written [21]. They've done what is quite clearly vandalism to other articles with false edit summaries, e.g. [22] Voceditenore (talk) 17:54, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

No changes The IP restored the text they deleted earlier. The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 18:02, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Planning a few initiatives

A few months ago, we started a discussion on starting a few initiatives. After that I talked to a few Indic Wikipedians. Very recently User:Vin09, User:Ms Sarah Welch and I resumed brainstorming, and also copied some portion from the Meta-Wiki page to this page.

Here are a few proposals which should improve a few things of this WikiProject.

A few plans for next 1 month or so
# Planned initiative Details
1 Starting "WikiProject India noticeboard star of the month A barnstar/recognition for the best participant(s) here. It'll encourage more participation
2 Starting regular nomination of Indic English Wikipedians to WP:PRECIOUS, Editor of the week etc There are multiple special recognitions here such as Wikipedian of the week, precious etc. Nominating best Indic editors there on regular basis.
3 Highlighting on Wikipedia social media channels Attempt to highlight some of the best Indic En WP works on Wikipedia social channels
4 Edit-a-thon Topic, dates unplanned

Please let us know your feedback. Also feel free to suggest new initiatives (but let's not plan something very big right now, IMO). --Tito Dutta (talk) 23:07, 17 February 2016 (UTC)

  • User:Balablitz, An edit-a-thon may take more amount of energy in comparison to #1, #2. But, an edit-a-thon may be started simultaneously. No topic has been planned so far. March is the women's month. A number of edit-a-thon has been planned already. I do not know if anything is directly-related to (WikiProject) India.
    About the last part of your comment before that the participating/contributing users shall oblige to the fundamentals of wikipedia -- before what and which users? Are you talking about the edit-a-thon or general Indic WP editors? --Tito Dutta (talk) 06:15, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
  • A suggestion, if you remeber we were pushing GA for Swami vivekananda ( was a newbee then!), I think we need quality articles too, it would be nice if you include an intiative to push FA or GA for at least one article per month with a colloborative approach, it would be nice Shrikanthv (talk) 08:20, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
  •   Agree - Good one. I'm in! Vensatry (Talk) 15:19, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
  • I am here watching! I will participate in projects if others do. Blue Rasberry (talk) 17:40, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
  •   Agree, this is a good initiative. Some suggestions: [1] Add an initiative to identify largely unsourced or poorly sourced higher traffic articles (> 100 views avg per day) in this and directly related project spaces (Hinduism/Jainism/Buddhism/Sikhism/etc). [2] Include periodic initiatives to attract page watchers, who track high traffic better quality articles, revert unsourced AGF opinion additions, revert vandalism, revert insertions of WP:ELNO, and other content policy violations. It is not only important to create quality articles, but to maintain them. Information pollution is high in this space, and this needs active team effort (and star of the month style recognition). [3] Tools page to help editors be more productive in edit-a-thons. Tools could be a list of reliable sources, links, harv-style copy-and-paste code text, possibly enlisting WP:RX to help access to key reliable sources requested by editors ahead of an edit-a-thon, etc. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 19:05, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
[4] Initiative on quality images that help edit-a-thons or current articles, from self/Flickr/other sources, that pass tineye.com reverse check. Recognizing those who contribute. Ms Sarah Welch (talk) 19:48, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
  • Comment: Not to discourage the initiative being taken, am sure this will help in new/newish editors. But there are many old editors here who are leaving WP for various reasons. Older editors don't much care for barnstars and such too. Maybe some things can be started to retains editors. The current plans are really good. But something, some brain storming, needs to be done additionally for these editors. Btw, we do lack regular India-article related admins. I know you can't make admins just for this sake from the current active editors and nor can you invoke interest in current admins. But the second option has a bit larger possibility than first one. It surely helps to have regular admins to retain regular editors who leave frustrated by vandals and promoters. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 10:46, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
    • Can't think of much to add regarding this but I feel that they may not care about the number of bstars, but at times, a simple acknowledgement at the right time may make a lot of difference in retaining even some veterans; I highly doubt that they are impervious to praise. Even if there exists only a minority of such editors who care, I still think it's worth it to try to raise everyone's morale like this. Ugog Nizdast (talk) 17:00, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
  •   Agree I am very much interested in being a part of this, the only problem is that I am very new to technically editing a 'wiki page'. However, I can always help in developments related to current affairs, politics, sports, movies, history, geography, laws, technology etc Maple leaves1707 (talk) 05:25, 22 February 2016 (UTC)
  •   Agree Great idea! I am all in for #1, #3 and #4. Not really for #2 since it won't be necessary if we have #1 but a few nominations in a while won't hurt. A suggestion though: instead of "WikiProject India noticeboard star of the month", use only "WikiProject India: Star of the month" or "WikiProject India: Hall of fame". I would absolutely love to see INCOTM coming back to life. I have always been a part of the initiative and I love working there. We can also start a WikiProject India Newsletter - let me know if you are up for this Titodutta and I will actively participate there as well. Best, Yash! 02:39, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
@Titodutta: So, what is the next step as most of them have been very positive to your proposal.--Vin09(talk) 05:29, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
* Let's wait for 7 days (from the date of the first post in this thread), then we'll go ahead. --Tito Dutta (talk) 05:34, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
  •   Agree All the best. Dharmadhyaksha raises other pertinent points, which may have substance, but that is not a reason to put a damper on this initiative. Good luck. Pincrete (talk) 16:05, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
  • Moving ahead: It is more than week now we have been brainstorming. In my opinion, it is the time to move ahead and start working. I am trying to make a quick summary, correct me if I am wrong. For now, these works are to be done (or discussed how to do):
  1. Barnstar, noticeboard barnstar, regular recognition to encourage editors, some brainstorming need to be done for experienced/senior Wikipedians (as User:Dharmadhyaksha pointed out). Barnstar name has been suggested ""WikiProject India: Star of the month" or "WikiProject India: Hall of fame" by User:Yash!
  2. WP:INCOTM restarting.
  3. Working on improving quality of vital articles, important articles;
  4. Add an initiative to identify largely unsourced or poorly sourced higher traffic articles (> 100 views avg per day) in this and directly related project spaces (Hinduism/Jainism/Buddhism/Sikhism/etc) (as suggested by User:Ms Sarah Welch)
  5. Working on edit-a-thons;
  6. Trying to involve more admins/experienced editors, as User:Vin09 mentioned "regular India-article related admins".
  7. Creating tool page, resource page, uploading quality images needed for/to improve edit-a-thons (see the post of User:Ms Sarah Welch for more details).
  8. meta:100wikidays promotion;
  9. Starting a WikiProject India monthly newsletter, as suggested by User:Yash!

--Tito Dutta (talk) 01:51, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

  Agree with @Tito Dutta: for all above and what is the first and foremost task to start with?--Vin09(talk) 08:22, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

WP:INCOTM revival

We have planned to restart our "Collaboration of the month". Someone please go ahead and start the page: Wikipedia:WikiProject India/Collaborations of the month/Nominations/2016 February, the page will follow Wikipedia:WikiProject India/Collaborations of the month/Nominations/2015 February structure. In my opinion, we can keep discussion open from 1 to 7 March and then we can start working. --Tito Dutta (talk) 05:39, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

I have started the page. Thanks -- Pankaj Jain Capankajsmilyo (talk · contribs · count) 07:17, 1 March 2016 (UTC)
I've corrected per @Titodutta: request.--Vin09(talk) 17:10, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

British Council Library

This would be a very helpful resource for all of us. They provide access to Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil resources (link). Yesterday, I requested at WP:TWL for this resource. Astinson (WMF) said that it would be good if someone from India lead the relationship. I don't have much experience in this field. Would someone volunteer to lead the talk? --Skr15081997 (talk) 09:09, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

@Skr15081997: Do you want BL to donate physical/individual library memberships to editors in India or are you looking for access to their e-resources/databases through TWL? The databases they offer are Ebrary, PressReader (the excel file you linked) and Academic OneFile (already available at WP:Gale). All partnerships have to be made with the individual publishers of these databases and unfortunately cannot be procured from the British Library for Wikipedia use. The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 12:53, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

  • OK, TWL has a partnership with Gale. Ebrary belongs to Proquest and TWL has had several round of talks with them. I think we should try for partnership with PressReader then. Personally, I don't need a physical library membership. I was looking for access to their databases, but now it turns out that we need to talk to individual partners instead. Anyway, library membership would be very helpful to those interested in it. Regards, --Skr15081997 (talk) 10:44, 29 February 2016 (UTC)

@Skr15081997,Tito: The library provides an online membership for an annual fee of 1100 rupees. Array of films, books on British Council e-library. Apply though the WMIN scholarship perhaps? The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 14:59, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Jat reservation agitation

Requesting mediation at Talk:Jat reservation agitation. Two SPAs are repeatedly removing sourced content, and inserting unsourced / OR content. utcursch | talk 17:48, 1 March 2016 (UTC)

Pt?

Hey all, what does the abbreviation "Pt." mean in the context of "Pt. Mallikarjun Mansur" and similar? Pandit? Is it an honorific? I'm trying to figure out whether I should remove it or not at Hubli-Dharwad. Many thanks, Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:41, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

Thanks @Tito Dutta: Cyphoidbomb (talk) 17:52, 2 March 2016 (UTC)

2016 March Indian Collaboration of the Months

Hello,  

 

We are happy to inform you that WikiProject Indian Collaborations of the month is going to be restarted this month and we want your active support here.

  1. Please nominate an article or vote other nominations here. The process will continue till 10 March.
  2. Should we introduce prizes for the best participants? If so, what should be the criteria, and what prizes should we give? Share your views here.

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 07:19, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Comments requested at Talk:T. K. Chand about whether or not maintenance tags should remain in article

Hello! Comments are requested at Talk:T. K. Chand about whether or not {{notability}} and {{refimprove}} templates should remain at T. K. Chand. Thank you. Cyphoidbomb (talk) 16:15, 3 March 2016 (UTC)

Asian Highway 45A

Asian Highway 45A. Does this exists?--Vin09(talk) 11:27, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Thiruvananthapuram

As per WP:Gallery, can we use galleries in the page? Also, there are large educational institutions mentioned in the lead which can be shifted to education section. Also a gallery section on Kovalam page.--Vin09(talk) 06:15, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

  • In my opinion yes, a) the education the lead does not need long list of educational institutions, the "education" section may have some entries, b) Gallery -- I am not fully sure how much that is useful here, if I am to do it, I'll prefer linking to Wikimedia Commons only. --Tito Dutta (talk) 06:21, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Also, Wikipedia:Points to note while debating in WikiProject India related AFDs is related to AfD and not to content I guess.--Vin09(talk) 06:35, 5 March 2016 (UTC)

Category:Jat clans of Punjab substubs

If you believe the subjects are notable, please write the articles. If not - a list of Jat clans may be enough.Xx236 (talk) 08:15, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

At least half of those articles fail WP:GNG, and should be either converted into surname disambiguation pages or deleted. utcursch | talk 17:48, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

Reviving request for Wikiproject Udaipur

Few months ago, I had raised a request for a dedicated Wikproject for the Indian City Udaipur. And since then, there have been many activities and updates around this topic, both online as well as on-ground. Udaipur has been organizing a series of events, like World Music Festival, Shilpgram2015, Udaipur Lake Festival, and several other globally recognized events. Besides, there are several other ongoing development under the Smart Cities Mission where Udaipur got selected. We are trying to put all these important aspects of information on Wikipedia, and again feel need for a dedicated project for Udaipur. Having such a project would also help us identify the progress made in terms of statistics provided by the Wikipedia supported tools (like tools.wmflabs.org). So would like to revive the request to officially have a Wikipedia:WikiProject Udaipur. Vishal0soni (talk) 10:07, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

As i mentioned during earlier conversation, the current page about Wikipedia:WikiProject Udaipur, and several other pages and categories were created by myself, thinking that this (manual creation) was the way to go. But then i realized that to get all these created, and to have a working statistic table via tools like tools.wmflabs.org, there would be some automatic way to enroll projects in the tool. Looking for that thing to happen, so that i get actual numbers in my statistics table on the Wikiproject page. Vishal0soni (talk) 02:08, 13 February 2016 (UTC)
  • Well, IMO, a sub-project or task force could be better. Anyway, templates and assessment related preparations need to be done manually. Yes a bot will work on the table. It has been long time I have worked here, I'll check if I can remember/find things. --Tito Dutta (talk) 23:22, 17 February 2016 (UTC)
Yes Tito Dutta, this is exactly what i intended. Project Udaipur can be under the Project Rajasthan, which is running under the project India. Most work regarding categories, templates, user templates is already done. And if there are any guidelines/steps, i can check them again. Do let me know the procedure. Vishal0soni (talk) 02:34, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
You may have a look at this page for task force guidelines: [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide/Task forces] --Tito Dutta (talk) 00:17, 20 February 2016 (UTC)
Hey, Somehow the statistics are now appearing on the Wikipedia:WikiProject Udaipur page. But still, the articles are not getting attached automatically. I know that we need to update the article's talk page to include the term 'udaipur=yes' in the project template. But even after doing so, the articles are not shown in the table. When i manually add some relevant category to the talk page, it starts showing in the table. For instance, i added the category 'Category-Class Udaipur articles' to the talk page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_talk:Udaipur, it started showing in the table. What should be done to get this task automated. ?? Vishal0soni (talk) 09:30, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
Vishal0soni, could you check it with WP:WPX? It might help. --Tito Dutta (talk) 16:31, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
Hey Tito Dutta. Thanks for pointing me towards this direction. I have started a discussion on project's page: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_X#Issues_with_WikiProject_setup_Wikiproject_Udaipur. Hoping to get some quick resolution for this problem. Vishal0soni (talk) 10:38, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
I have still not received any response for the request Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_X#Issues_with_WikiProject_setup_Wikiproject_Udaipur. Also, i believe, some changes will be required in the WikiProject India Template, which is semi licked for editing. Can someone please confirm. I am still facing the issue regarding automatic adding of articles to the Statistics table. Once it starts, i will work on adding all the articles to the project. Vishal0soni (talk) 10:57, 29 February 2016 (UTC)
I have raised a question regarding this issue on the WP:India Template Talk page. Hoping for some response/guidance from them. Vishal0soni (talk) 06:54, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

WP:INDICSCRIPT

There seems to be some kind of consensus that prohibits Indic scripts being included in the opening sentence of articles regardless of the context - be them country articles, historical articles, biographical articles, articles about movies and so on - and this consensus appears to have been reached by 2 or 3 people, if not more.

One of the users justified the removal of Indic scripts (from movie articles) by saying that it would cause 'confusion' because people wouldn't know whether they should add Hindi, Urdu, or some other Indian regional language.

However, most of these movies are from the Hindi film industry (colloquially known as 'Bollywood'), are made in Hindi, and are made in a country where Hindi in the Devanagari script is the official language along with English. It does make complete sense to include their Hindi - or should I say, official names. I see no 'confusion' here whatsoever given that Urdu is not an official language of India. Any person who has watched a Hindi movie would know that at the beginning of every movie a अ/U certification is normally displayed - with the name of the movie officially listed in solely Hindi and Hindi alone (link: http://dooleyonline.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551a4e0f3883301a3fbbc9f2e970b-pi). Articles about Russian and Chinese films have their native and official scripts clearly listed in the lead sentences, and the reason for the removal of Indic scripts in Indian articles seems really dubious and unnecessary. I would like to understand more about the removal of Indic scripts because the reasoning that it might be 'confusing' does not really make much sense at all.

Furthermore, it gets even more dubious when it comes to the issue of biographical articles. This could cause conflict - for example, if the person listed in the biographical article wanted their native name to be listed, but an unknown editor disagreed, who would be right here? It wouldn't count as someone writing information about themselves, which is prohibited by Wikipedia's policies on biographies of living persons. They would merely be adding their native name - a mere transcription. Would it be removed? Also, are these standards limited to biographical articles of Indians from India, or biographical articles of prominent members of the diaspora? It is far from being enforced universally. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have their native names listed in the lead sentences of their biographical articles, yet Narendra Modi does not.

I think this issue should be discussed more as there are far too many holes in it. Tiger7253 (talk) 11:44, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Hi Tiger7253 have you read through Wikipedia talk:Noticeboard for India-related topics/Archive 48#Native languages in lead? It sheds light on both sides of the argument, for and against the use of regional scripts. The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 12:17, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
I still feel that it is dubious. For starters, it hasn't been enforced universally. There are many, many biographical articles that still have Indic scripts in them. Were they added by the (in this case let's say actors) actors themselves after being removed after this policy was instated? If so, can it be assumed that actors can override the consensus if they want their native name to be listed? Or was the policy just not enforced universally? If the latter is the case, then why is it not being enforced?
There are many instances where Indic scripts cannot be included because of conflicting opinions and that is fine, in the case of Aishwarya Rajinikanth as listed in the opening sentence of that thread. But for instances where the ethnolinguistic background of the person in question is pretty clear-cut, why can't exceptions not be made? Narendra Modi for example clearly has Gujarati as his mothertongue, yet an IPA has been included instead because of a highly generalised consensus that allows for a lot of things slip through the cracks. The IPA means absolutely nothing to the vast majority of Indians who can barely read it. I strongly feel that the consensus has to be loosened and modified to allow for the insertion of Indic scripts when there isn't any conflict as to what type of script and language should be included. In the case of ambiguity, it would be fine to leave it out. This issue is too multifaceted to allow one general consensus to be imposed on it.
I believe that Indic scripts should be considered on a case-by-case basis and a consensus should be formed in the talk page of each individual article. Tiger7253 (talk) 12:41, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
  Agree I agree with Tiger7253. Use of Indic scripts would help provide granular information about the topic, in the native language. So for instance, if i were to read details about Narendra Modi as quoted in above example, i would prefer to know how his name would look like in the native language as well. Also, regarding the issue with movie article, the example (link: http://dooleyonline.typepad.com/.a/6a00e551a4e0f3883301a3fbbc9f2e970b-pi) not only shows the name of the movie in Hindi, but it also clearly mentions the language and type within the first para. In this example, it reads "हिन्दी", "रंगीन" (meaning Hindi, Colourful) which it self is written in same Indic language talked about. I believe, there should be no confusion when mentioning the related Indic Language in such cases. Vishal0soni (talk) 13:05, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
  Agree Thank you for the support. I feel that it is only logical that this consensus become undone, and that each individual article reaches a unique consensus. There is absolutely no reason to do away with Indic scripts in one fell swoop because of the fear of ambiguity - there is no ambiguity whatsover in 'Gautama Buddha' (Sanskrit), Narendra Modi (Gujarati), and Guru Nanak (Punjabi, which is thankfully still in the article and has not been removed) - and especially in the case of biographical articles, getting rid of perfectly legal, native names that have every reason and right to be there is utterly unnecessary and is a form of erasure. Hypothetically speaking, if I were an actor and English wasn't my first language, I would want my native name to be in an article about me for the same reason any Russian or Chinese person would want the same. Wikipedia is the most prominent online encyclopaedia that exists on the internet and it is important that the policy of including native names remains somewhat uniform throughout the encyclopaedia instead of enacting a barely-enforced consensus like this within the Indian context that has very confusing parameters to begin with. Tiger7253 (talk) 13:19, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
would request to start RFC , but doubt would succed Shrikanthv (talk) 13:23, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
I would like to request that too. In order to streamline this hunk of text and make it more readable, I have added check marks to the paragraphs of those who would approve a change in the consensus previously reached (and will add cross marks to those who would prefer to keep the consensus as it is) Tiger7253 (talk) 13:26, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
  Disagree There are still too many scripts, and too few people that understand all of them. Somebody might put some obscenities in some script just for fun, and we wouldn't know. Secondly, I don't see the value of it. This is English Wikipedia. People that come to read it can certainly understand Indian language names transliterated in English. If necessary as a guide to pronunciation, we can add IAST (or Calcutta romanisation or IPA). See WP:NCIN. I don't see the need for Indic scripts. - Kautilya3 (talk) 15:27, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
  Disagree {{Infobox film}} has a "film name" parameter and {{Infobox person}} has a "native_name" parameter -- both of these can be used for native scripts without cluttering up to the lead sentence.
Personally, I don't see any use of native scripts in the lead sentence other than massaging linguistic egos. For pronunciation, {{IPA}} or its variants can be used with an audio file. utcursch | talk 16:06, 25 February 2016 (UTC)


"Someone might put some obscenities in some script just for fun" and that's why we have editors. And that is why Wikipedia has a vandalism policy. I'm afraid this isn't really a justification for the removal of Indic scripts. Vandalism could happen to any language in any script, it isn't limited to Indic scripts. The vast majority of articles employ widespread Indic scripts, not obscure ones - there are hundreds of millions of Bengali speakers alone, and tens of millions of speakers that employ the major South Indian language scripts.
The 'English Wikipedia' argument would count if every single Russian, Chinese, Asian, basically non-white, non-English article didn't have transcriptions for native names. Wiki policy clearly allows for the inclusion of native scripts, and the 'English Wikipedia' argument about doing away with them therefore doesn't really make sense.
There is also certainly a value to including Indic scripts. It is (in the event of a prominent personality) a representative of their native name. Their names are based on non-English languages. Doing away with it and merely including the Latin transcription of their name that the article is based on is a form of erasure. Furthermore, in the event of Hindu/Buddhist concepts like Karma and Dharma, there definitely is a value to having the native Indic/Sanskrit spelling of it listed in the lead sentence. It is entirely the essence of what they are. Tiger7253 (talk) 16:11, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
As for the remark about 'massaging linguistic egos', I'm not sure what you meant by that. Most 'ethnic' people identify by their native name - the world does not revolve around Latin transcriptions of people's names. Tiger7253 (talk) 16:11, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
We're not discussing the world here. We're discussing English Wikipedia. Like I said, there are appropriate parameters in infobox in case someone does need to look at the native names (besides the inter-wiki links in the sidebar). Pronunciations can be handled with IPA + audio files. Is there any other utility for native scripts in the lead? utcursch | talk 16:34, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
  • India is a large polyglot country and which script or name to use is not always clearcut. Take, for example, the recent movie Court which uses English, Marathi, Gujarati and some Hindi. Which language and script should we use? One, two, all? What if someone in the film spoke a couple of lines of Bengali or Tamil in the film? Should we add those as well? Should Jaab we met be rendered with Jaab in Devnagri (or Gurmukhi?) but 'we met' in English? It is worth noting that this is the English language wikipedia, that our readers read in English, that there is little, if any, benefit in adding text in other scripts to the lead. All we get is unnecessary clutter that makes an article harder to read and adds an overhead to our discussions on which scripts to include in the article. That is why we ended up with our current policy. --regentspark (comment) 16:44, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

  Disagree for the proposal to use indic scripts.--Vin09(talk) 16:45, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Until this is made standard policy across all of Wikipedia and all articles that deal with non-Western subjects, the English Wikipedia argument unfortunately won't work. Anyone who thinks that this is a legitimate argument should take it up with a higher body, because the entire reason why native scripts are allowed in the lead is because Wikipedia allowed it so in the first place. I doubt Russian will be taken off Vladimir Putin's lead sentence any time soon - neither will the native scripts in the lead sentences of the millions of articles on English Wikipedia that deal with non-Western subjects. English Wikipedia - sure - but people who have an English name are in the minority. There doesn't seem to be a very strong case for the prohibition of Indic scripts in the lead, unfortunately - it seems to be more of a case of people merely disliking it and doing away with it because they think it 'massages linguistic egos', which makes no sense whatsoever and unfortunately isn't reason enough to ditch it. I would say that there is far more reason to include something that is nothing but a perfectly legal spelling of the legal names in the specific countries. The link to the certification that I posted above clearly proves that.
My case for the inclusion of native scripts in the lead also hinges on the fact that the language can be specified. It isn't the case in the infobox where the name is just dumped there. In the case of the Devanagari script - it is used as the script of many Indian languages - like Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, and so on - and that can be specified in the lead. In the infobox, it'll just be an ambiguous line of text (see: LK Advani. The same goes for the script that is used to write Bengali and Assamese. Tiger7253 (talk) 16:57, 25 February 2016 (UTC)


regentspark Which is why I also specified that it must be considered on a case-by-case basis, and shouldn't be enforced uniformly. I did say that Indic scripts should only be included in the event that there is a clear-cut consensus on what type of script should be included. If not - if there is too much ambiguity - it shouldn't be included.
Unfortunately, the current policy does away with all of it in one fell swoop. In the case of biographies of people belonging to just one ethnolingustic group, their native names get done away with too - which is completely unnecessary. Tiger7253 (talk) 16:59, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

You don't get it so I'll try to make it simple. India is not Russia, there are many candidate scripts and many languages. It is not always clear which script to use. There is little (or no) benefit for English readers in seeing one or more native scripts. So we don't use them across the board. --regentspark (comment) 17:05, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Would the policy be enforced in the event of a biographical article about a purely Gujarati or Tamil person where the script that should be used is clear-cut? Surely there should be some leeway. That is the essence about my entire argument: Allowing for some leeway. Not every article will fit the mould that the consensus has been based upon. Tiger7253 (talk) 17:18, 25 February 2016 (UTC)
The consensus at the time was that incorporating indic scripts will lead to a myriad of problems and that since the cons outweigh the pros, they should be removed. So yes, policy will be enforced across all articles regardless of the subject’s ethnic purity or preference. The interwiki links in the sidebar will point you to the corresponding indic wikipedia article. The Masked Man of Mega Might (talk) 17:49, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Comment – One effect of not including Indian scripts is that it weakens the status of these languages and these scripts, and this alone should be an argument for not following this policy. Imc (talk) 21:13, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Absolutely not to Indian scripts in the lead and infoboxes of India-related biography pages. The main problem is one of definitely and reliably ascertaining what someone's native language is (ie what they consider their native language) and in which script they chose to write it. I notice someone has added the Devanagari version of Jawaharlal Nehru to the Jawaharlal Nehru page, but it is far from certain that Nehru considered Hindi his native language. Did he speak Kashmiri at home even if his family had been living in the United Provinces from many generations. In public, he spoke what was more Hindustani than Hindi and he certainly knew how to write the Urdu script, sometimes signing his name in Urdu. Others had their own views of Nehru's first language. Abul Kalam Azad, who was Nehru's cell-mate in the Naini Jail, famously claimed that Nehru even dreamed in English. He certainly was much more comfortable in English than he was in Hindustani, Hindi, or Kashmiri. So what is accomplished by writing Nehru's name in Devanagari other than distorting the truth? Fowler&fowler«Talk» 03:52, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

Macaulay and the English language in India

In reading the above discussion on use of Indic scripts, and in previous discussions of this topic, I am reminded of Macaulay's arrogant and dismissive statement two centuries ago that a single shelf of a good European library is worth the whole native literature of India. I imagine most of the editors here are Indian or of Indian origin like myself. But is this attitude present among us, and affecting Wikipedia? Imc (talk) 21:13, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Please don't reduce Macaulay to the usual post-colonial caricature, picking that one hackneyed line in the millions of words Macaulay wrote. Macaulay along with Kipling was one of the rare child prodigies of the English language. Before his death at age 59, he wrote an extraordinary number of books whose prose passages use to be compulsory practice for students in America and throughout the British commonwealth. He was in India for four years. During that time he single-handedly wrote the Indian Penal Code, which, in more or less unchanged form, is the Law of the Land in India. Read his Notes on the Indian Penal Code and you will realize the acute mind that was at work behind it. The IPC was a progressive code for its time and a radical improvement on English Common Law in place in England then. Just because Indians have not had the self-confidence and drive to update IPC (for example with respect to gay rights) Macaulay gets blamed for it. His minute on Education was a minuscule part of what he did in India, a footnote. Granted, he had his prejudices, but it doesn't help to blame Macaulay for everything, now matter how off-topic. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 04:29, 26 February 2016 (UTC)
If you want to improve the "status of these languages and these scripts", start editing Indian language Wikipedias. Adding Indian scripts on English Wikipedia pages achieves absolutely nothing towards that objective.
The reason so many editors are opposed to Indic scripts in the lead is that they have seen the lame edit wars in the past. Hindi speakers insisting addition of Devanagari everywhere because it's the official language of the Union, Tamil speakers insisting on addition of Tamil script to every article related to ancient Kerala because Malayalam is a relatively modern language, Devanagari and Kannada proponents fighting over Konkan-related articles... ultimately, hundreds of articles would end up with ridiculous WP:LEADCLUTTER. "Rajnikanth (Tamil: ரஜினிகாந்த், Marathi: रजनीकांत, Kannada: ರಜನೀಕಾಂತ್), real name Sivaji Rao Gaekwad (Tamil: சிவாஜி ராவ் காயகவாட், Marathi: शिवाजीराव गायकवाड, Kannada: ಶಿವಾಜಿ ರಾವ್ ಗಾಯಕ್ವಾಡ್)" is of absolutely no use to the average reader, and interferes with reading experience. Not to mention the edit wars over which language should appear first in the list.
Personally, I am not opposed to the use of native scripts in infoboxes (esp. for movies, books, uncontested places/people etc.), because that does not clutter up the lead. For the lead sentences, not so much. Deciding things on a "case-to-case" basis doesn't sound so bad in theory, but the frivolous edit wars used to be so rampant that several editors agreed to a blanket ban.
The decision has got absolutely nothing to with colonial mindset or Macaulay's legacy. utcursch | talk 04:49, 26 February 2016 (UTC)

I think we can all agree to keep it off the lead and limit it to just the infoboxes, then. Doing away with Indic script completely, as one comment above states, feels sort of agenda-driven. Policies can be created to allow for the exclusion of Indic script in extremely ambiguous cases, like Rajinikanth. In some clear-cut cases, like for the Narendra Modi article, Gujarati is the obvious choice (and his signature below is even in Gujarati). Do not penalise everyone for the mistakes of a few. The unnecessary edit wars can be stopped by imposing new policies. There are no policies that prohibit the exclusion of Indic script from infoboxes - just the one that prohibits it from the lead - and unless one is created (and it will be extremely unpopular), it shall remain. If you think the inclusion of Devanagari in Nehru's infobox (which is used to write both Hindi and Kashmiri, Nehru's mother tongue) is ambiguous, then it can be done away with. However, regardless of his proficiency in the language, or the scale of his Anglophilia - including Devanagari in his infobox has nothing to do with either his proficiency and Anglophilia. This misses the point.
It is a mere transcription of what his name was rendered like in official and legal Indian documents, and I do believe this forms an important - superficial, yet important, component of the English Wikipedia. As for all other articles, what I would propose is including just the native name of the subject in the infobox, and nothing more. Perhaps we could create a policy like that. Regardless of Hindi's status as the official language of the union, the Indic script included in the infoboxes should be limited to the subject's mothertongue, and we should leave it at that. I also personally agree with the user above that completely banishing Indic scripts considerably weakens it in the English-speaking world - by doing away with whatever limited, little representation these scripts have in the English realm. Tiger7253 (talk) 10:16, 26 February 2016 (UTC)
Please don't boldface. Please don't infer something, that there is agreement to allow native scripts in infoboxes, when there is no such agreement. Please don't write tendentiously, and do so relentlessly: Kashmiri was written in the Perso-Arabic script by an overwhelming proportion of the Kashmir valley's population during Nehru's lifespan (1889–1964). That population was stably 95% Muslim from the first census of British India (1871) to the first census of the Republic of India conducted after Nehru's death (1971). So are you now going to argue that because Nehru belonged to the 5% Pandit minority, his script of choice was the Sarda script? Besides I don't see Sarada there either. It is not even clear how is name is pronounced in Kashmiri. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 23:02, 26 February 2016 (UTC)
PS I have just become aware that Tiger7253 (talk · contribs) has added native scripts en mass to the office holder infoboxes of Indian biography pages. I have now removed the Devanagari script which he had added to the Jawaharlal Nehru page and to the Narendra Modi page. There are too many issues: It is not clear what "native name" means both in the "office holder" context and in the Indian context. Does it mean name in the official language of the office or the name in the mother tongue? In the Indian context, is it Hindi, the official language of the union; English the associate official language in which most business was conducted during Nehru's tenure; or one among a further 22 regional languages that grace the 8th schedule of India's constitution? In the person context, is it one among dozens of regional languages and thousands of dialects? Besides, the name Nehru, as is well-known, is not a Kashmiri name at all, but is the vulgarization of the Persian "Nahar" (canal). The caste name "Kaul" was changed to Nehru, because an ancestor Raj Kaul, who had migrated to Delhi from Kashmir at the invitation of the Mughal Emperor Farrukhsiyar, built a house there on the banks of a canal. So in what script are we going to write the made up surname Nehru? Besides, will the native spelling (when rendered phonetically in English) be Nayharu or Naharu? Please establish consensus on these basic issues before any such en mass change is accepted. Please be aware that there is no legal or official recognition of the ethno-linguistic status of an Indian citizen, except in some rare instances when it is an aspect of caste which renders the citizen disadvantaged. Will an admin please revert these edits. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 00:28, 27 February 2016 (UTC)
It is probably not a good idea for an admin to revert. We have very few admins with a knowledgeable interest in Indic articles and by reverting they would most likely be considered involved. Just do it, as I did at a couple of list articles a few hours ago.

This issue has been discussed to death by experienced contributors to the topic area every time someone with very little experience turns up. It becomes tedious and it would only be less so if the relatively new contributors actually produced some new argument. They don't, unless my memory is defective. The arguments against going down this road may well be beyond the comprehension of the newcomers but it doesn't make them any less valid and, sorry, there are times when experience really does count. Dammit, India is in a state of almost permanent reconstruction simply because of linguistic assertions regarding territory etc (Telegana being I think the last officially sanctioned division). We do not need to import, encourage or otherwise enable the potential problems of these disputes to an English language encyclopaedia - we have specific articles which deal with them. - Sitush (talk) 02:22, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Well, I guess I'm yet another new contributor to turn up (I hadn't had the chance to read through all the relevant discussions so far), but I'm not really up for starting a polemic, nor do I want to detract from what seems to me like the main argument against Indic scripts, summed up by utcursch above. I'm just noting a few points. If they've been discussed before – fine, I'll get to the old discussions at some stage.

One of the major arguments against the use of Indic scripts is that there are many cases where deciding on a single script to use is tricky. First, this is not limited to India-related articles, I'm used to seeing article leads that list two, three or more native names in the first sentence (example: Thrace or Shopska salata). I don't know how this practice is received in the other wikipedia projects or whether criticism isn't levied against it but the practice is common enough. I have no issue with clutter in the first sentence: it's irrelevant for me because the only place where this space matters is inside the navigation popups, but they skip any templates and given that a name in an Indic script is most likely to be found within a lang template, it isn't getting displayed.

Now, even assuming we don't want to clutter the lead and chose to have only one representation of the name, then of course there'll be plenty of room for controversy and it's sensible to want to avoid it. But we aren't really avoiding it by ditching the scripts and using IPA. Of course, IPA symbols are less ridden with identity value and they wouldn't attract as much of the chauvinistic edit-warring that native scripts do (but that's mixed blessing, I'll explain that later). But in all but but the most trivial cases, by opting for IPA we aren't really saving ourselves the difficult choices we would have with scripts. After all, IPA gives the pronunciation in one given language and a decision has to be made which language this is going to be. We'll still have to decide between Panjabi [síŋɡ] and Urdu [siŋɡʱ], or between Bengali [rɔbindrɔ] and Hindi [rəvindrə]. Using transliteration, instead of native script or pronunciation could be a way out as the transliteration of a name is more likely to be uniform across some languages and scripts, but that's not universal and there're many problem cases. Besides, my experience is that transliterated names are much harder to maintain than versions in native scripts and errors tend to stay longer: almost every contributor from India will be competent in the scripts relevant to the pages they're editing whereas there's usually only a handful of editors with the scholarly or foreign-language background to spot errors in transliterations.

Personally I find Indic scripts tremendously useful. They help me figure out what's what when editing dab and anthroponymy pages, they often provide linguistic and etymological information that I find interesting (if trivial), but more importantly they help when searching for more information online. I know enough Hindi to be able to browse google results when I paste the native name but I don't know enough to be able to figure out how that is going to spelt given the IPA or the anglicisation. Of course, interiwiki links are helpful but more often than not there haven't been any.

As for keeping the native scripts or transliterations in the infobox and out of the lead: for me personally it doesn't matter where this information is, as long as it's prominent enough: the top of the infobox is just as good as the lead. But I see two potential issues here: the general practice on wikipedia seems to be in favour of putting them in parentheses in the first sentence of the lead and that's where readers (me included) are used to seeing it. Second, and more important, the infobox provides only a partial solution: not all articles have infoboxes, not all infoboxes have the relevant field, and of those that do, not many allow even the most basic flexibility (of specifying which language this is or giving more than one script) that we have with free text.

Well, this is my two pence. If this ever gets to another RfC I'll try to articulate my thoughts better. Uanfala (talk) 01:30, 8 March 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia:WikiProject Wales/Awaken the Dragon

Hi, can I interest anybody in participating in April? Up to £200 in Amazon vouchers and books up for grabs. If it is a success I'm considering proposing one for India based on the same model, and we could have prizes for tackling Indian cinema/geography articles etc. The more successful it is, more chance other contests like one for India will be approved! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 13:28, 9 March 2016 (UTC)

Tamils as a stateless nation

There is a dispute submitted at Dispute Resolution Noticeboard, titled "Talk:Tamils#Are Tamils a stateless nation or only Sri Lankan Tamils?" Somehow I got sucked into this even though I know very little about stateless nations myself. Can interested people participate? - Kautilya3 (talk) 14:07, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Proposal to split the Unique Identification Authority of India article.

Someone has proposed that the Unique Identification Authority of India should be split into two articles: one for Unique Identification Authority of India, the controlling body and one for Aadhaar the ID number. Please comment. -Kenfyre (talk) 17:53, 11 March 2016 (UTC)

Request for Wikiproject:Vijayawada, Wikiproject:Eluru, Wikiproject:Guntur

I request someone to create wikiproject for these places as they fall under the capital region of Andhra Pradesh state and some has many pages under its category.--Imahesh3847 (talk) 14:39, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

There should be some activity and participants, otherwise no use in creating them. I've created Vizag recently only because it is more of an important city and AP do not have any city wikiproject.--Vin09(talk) 16:00, 13 March 2016 (UTC)

Lucknow GAN

Editor who nominated the article for GA has not been active since long. I have made primary comments at Talk:Lucknow/GA3 and noted that further more would come after these are resolved. The pending work is huge and the article has a long history of failures and thereby long notes of to-do as well. Not an easy task for someone not really interested but I still thought of droping a note here. Anyone interested can take up the task and let me know of the status.
Also noticed that the nominator himself has nominated the article multiple times and has been editing articles related to Lucknow. The defunct and unnecessary Wikipedia:WikiProject Lucknow also seems to be their brainchild. §§Dharmadhyaksha§§ {Talk / Edits} 10:44, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

Cricketers who go into acting

There's a discussion over at CfD on Category:South Asian cricketers who have acted in movies. Although the name needs changing, I and another editor suspect that cricketer-actors are enough of a "thing" that the category shouldn't be deleted outright as most other contributors to that discussion think. It would probably need an article on the subject to save the category though - anyone fancy it? Le Deluge (talk) 13:25, 14 March 2016 (UTC)

INCOTM March article

Hello, most probably you have noticed that Environment of India has been selected as the article of the month. In March we'll collaboratively attempt to improve article. Please spend some time and help to improve this article. Regards.--Tito Dutta (talk) 17:36, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

Naming

Is the proposed naming at Talk:National Highway 26 (India) improper, need more views. If it is then, we need to move all other pages to proper naming.--Vin09(talk) 06:07, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

Adlabs page

This page is written like an advt for Adlabs Imagica need help to wikify it. I seek partners to do so, please ping me on my talk page or here. Yogesh Khandke (talk) 07:02, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Yogesh Khandke Removed content promotion and has no references. The user who added it was already blocked.--Vin09(talk) 07:31, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
Many stories about the subject, need help to rebuild it, would it be possible to start a fresh? @Vin09:Yogesh Khandke (talk) 08:07, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
I have less idea on it.--Vin09(talk) 08:08, 21 March 2016 (UTC)
Thanks nevertheless. Yogesh Khandke (talk)

need help

I seek partners to rebuild the page. Yogesh Khandke (talk) 08:12, 21 March 2016 (UTC)