Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/India Nomenclature Issues

The following discussion is an archived proposal of the WikiProject below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.

The resulting WikiProject was not created

Description

Several India related nomenclature discussions are repeated on the talk pages of different articles often making the same points and duplicating effort. For example in the last week or so, I've seen the following discussions, all relating to the naming of Indian cities, an Indian river and the use of the term India versus South Asia.

Renaming of Bangalore to Bengaluru on the talk page of the 2011 Cricket World Cup article.
The same Bangalore-Bengaluru topic is seen on the talk page of the Bangalore article itself.
More than a year back there was a discussion about India v. South Asia nomenclature and we see the same, lengthy discussion today at an entirely different article.
The use of the {{Indian English}} template being discussed in multiple locations is yet another example. Another related topic is the proposed deletion of the Indian English article.
The renaming of Ganges to Ganga has been discussed on more than one occasion in the last few months.
The renaming of the article on Gandhi from Mohandas Gandhi to Mahatama Gandhi has been discussed in the past and is likely to come up again.
All of the major Indian cities have been renamed by the Indian government, examples include Bombay to Mumbai, Calcutta to Kolkata, Madras to Chennai and so on. Infobox entries are often challenged for all of these articles and this is likely to continue for the next several years.
I am sure several other examples can be uncovered, given that category:India is a container category with 24 sub-categories and there are thousands of articles in the category.

A project that focuses on addressing these issues at one central location will eliminate these multiple discussions. Once consensus is reached at project level, we can define a few key guidelines which editors can refer to when faced with a choice of using one name over the other. Zuggernaut (talk) 04:22, 5 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support

Please specify whether or not you would join the project.

{{{3}}}

Discussion

Perhaps these are all MoS issues. Maybe a WikiProject is not the right forum for this? --Klein zach 03:02, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Please take a look at talk page of a similar task force. Many of the issues here are very similar to the ones there. Some examples:

Should India, when used in historical context, refer to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh or is the term South Asia more appropriate although that term did not exit for more than 99% of history.
Should Wikipedia have the {{Indian English}} template at all?
Since all Indian editors voted to move the article Ganges to Ganga, is this a case of systemic bias? If so, how is it resolved:

Data from Ganges move:

Geographical locations of editors who voted in the Ganges to Ganga move debate
Position	Location	Number
Against Ganga (23)	India	0^{[citation needed]}
	West	13^{[citation needed]}
	Unknown	10
Support Ganga (13)	India	6^{[citation needed]}
	West	2^{[citation needed]}
	Unknown	5
Neutral (1)	Unknown	1
Total votes (36)		36

Zuggernaut (talk) 03:35, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

OK, but I think that points to using a specialized task force, rather than a WikiProject. --Klein zach 03:49, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Shouldn't this be a taskforce of WPIndia? 65.93.14.50 (talk) 05:35, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Or, perhaps we need a WP:WikiProject EngVar... since Engvar-ious issues keep cropping up, regardless of it being India or not. Since some UK editors push UK spelling, and say there are only two types of spelling UK or US. Some US editors push US spelling, pointing to the fact that the US population is much larger than UK/Aus/NZ/Can. Aus/Can/NZ editors dislike the fact that some UK editors dismiss their usage as the same as UK when it is not. 65.93.14.50 (talk) 05:39, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You can't guess the nationality of editors (even if they say it themselves) and then state is as fact. Please remove the table; it is against Wikipedia regulations and you could get into trouble for it. If you don't remove it, I will report you. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 06:12, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The table should be certainly taken off, not just from here but from the Ganga page as well, if it violates a policy or a guideline. I am not aware of what is being violated here. If you can please point to the regulation it violates, I will promptly take it off. Zuggernaut (talk) 07:27, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

These 'nomenclature' issues are well covered by our naming policies (please see WP:AT). If I may add, devising tables based on a single editor's views on nationality or ethnic origins is divisive and against the cooperative spirit of this encyclopedia and I suggest that zuggernaut remove it to show his/her good faith. --rgpk (comment) 14:51, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

SupportI do not know how this goes about, but nevertheless my vote on one two three is (1)The term India is more appropriate. (2)I support the Indian English dialect. (3)Ganges be moved to Ganga, on merit and not to correct any biases, the reasons rest in the archives of the Ganges talk page.Yogesh Khandke (talk) 19:45, 6 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the project's talk page (if created) or at the WikiProject Council). No further edits should be made to this page.