Talk:History of Pakistan - Misplaced Pages

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To-do list for History of Pakistan: edit · history · watch · refresh · Updated 2010-05-24

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Cleanup : Summarise the precolonial sections
Copyedit : The whole article needs a thorough copyedit
Expand : The post-1947 sections
Verify : Provide inline citations wherever possible
Other : * Optimize number of images - make use of the rotation template
- Request a peer review soon
- Give more importance to the events that lead to the emergence of modern Pakistan and the events after 1947
- Give less importance to the ancient and precolonial histories that are better covered in the relevant articles
- Try to keep this article as a summary, and create relevant daughter articles where necessary
- Protect this vadalism-prone article from malicious edits

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Archive 1	Archive 2	Archive 3
Archive 4

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The article is not the history of Pakistan as a state

The lead that is currently in the article has been in place for nearly 15 years. History if Pakistan is the history of the region that is today Pakistan. In other words, "ancient Pakistan" is an apt term. The old notion that Pakistan exists only after 1947 was settled long ago in many discussions both on this talk page and in the History of India and History of South Asia pages. It was decided that History of India is the history of the region that is today the Republic of India; if is UNDUE to include Mohenjo-daro or Gandhara or Taxila beyond a cursory mention in a history of India; the same applies, for example, to Dacca Muslin and the deindustrialization of Bengal. It is mostly a part of the history of Bangladesh. It is also UNDUE to claim the region of Pakistan in the realms of all sorts of Indian kingdoms the evidence of whose sovereignty in Pakistan is meagre or nonexistent. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:24, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

@Fowler&fowler: Could you actually point me to the supposed "consensus" in question that you claim as the reason for your mass deletion of content ? And anyway is all this 6-months material you are indiscrimately reverting in contravention of this supposed consensus? This seems like a pretty cavalier way of managing article content.... पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 14:32, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

It was summarized by user:Nichalp admin and arbitrator, the editor who was responsible for nearly 20 India-related Featured Articles on Misplaced Pages, in this post from April 2007 Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:54, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Have no bone in the dispute but the same Nichalp who was site-banned by the ArbCom for, let's just say, some pretty interesting stuff? Not even considering that it was over 15 years ago, an eon in internet-era. TrangaBellam (talk) 06:57, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

TB, Nichalp was a respected editor and admin on India articles and is responsible for a lot of content. Yes, he was site banned, but that was after he had stopped contributing as Nichalp, and stopped contributing to India articles. It had nothing to do with his content work on Misplaced Pages and many of us "old fogies" continue to respect his work. Regardless, I agree with Pat that we shouldn't be using what he left behind as a standard for where we want to be. Best to make independent comments on the content or structure of articles. --RegentsPark (comment) 16:28, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

So I see the issue is the lead. I was concerned about the mass removal of content. I tried to contribute in improving the article and was confused where my contributions were wrong Jamal047 (talk) 14:53, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

The lead is a DUE summary of article content, and in some sense a template of what the content should not stray beyond. I believe your additions were UNDUE. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 15:10, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

@Fowler&fowler: The 15-year-old post by user:Nichalp seems to be a common-sense comment, not a "consensus" as you claimed. Anyway, can you specify which new content in the introduction, or specifically which content in the body of the article, you consider might be "undue"? पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 15:22, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

It is very much the consensus. It has been followed scrupulously both on the India page (in many discussions, which you will have to find yourself on Talk:India) and on the History of India pages. Why do you think both pages, especially the India page concentrates only on the history in the region that is today the Republic of India?

I have told you again and again, please do not ping me. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 16:05, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I have removed more WP:UNDUE content, and as I state below in reply to Johnbod, I plan to bring the prose size down to 10K words. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 17:58, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

@Fowler&fowler:The way you have been doing this is beyond common sense I'm afraid, and shows complete disrespect for the contributions of others: first you start by deleting the last 6 months of edits (by the way, you are already at your 3rd revert here, on the verge of breaking, again, the WP:3RR rule), and then you go on with a flurry of edits. It should be the other way around: you should edit from the latest version, taking into account the edits from the last 6 months, and then trim as necessary. But instead of that, you are simply blanket-deleting the efforts of all contributors from the last 6 months: how to you expect these contributors to react? This is the opposite of collaborative editing: don't be surprised if you are reverted again by multiple users. User:Johnbod too said that valuable content may have been added in the last 6 months: these contributions have to be respected and deserve more careful analysis. पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 18:28, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Johnbod is saying politely that the article needs to be reduced drastically. They certainly did not say "valuable content." I know I am at 3RR, I say in my edit summary that sometimes you have to take that risk when Misplaced Pages norms of WP:DUE and WP:NPOV are being violently violated in the worst possible way, when India-POV history consisting of the smallest kingdoms described without supportive sources in one-sentence sections are being added to the History of Pakistan. It is a little ridiculous when the Maurya Empire section in the History of Pakistan has twice the geographical extent in its map and is described in double the prose needed in the lead of the Maurya Empire page. Those are the sections I have removed or reduced. I wrote his article long time ago. It has changed a lot since, but I don't intervene unless I see gross WP violations. I know I am following WP policy in the best interpretations of ARBIPA. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 18:39, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Again, please do not ping me Patliputra. What is it you do not understand? Fowler&fowler «Talk» 18:40, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Also, Pakistan is going through a very difficult time right now, with floods ravaging the country. This is not the time for Indian editors or India-POV-promoting editors to gang up on Pakistan-related pages. I see no Pakistani editors opposing here. Very likely they are preoccupied with real life. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 18:52, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I am asking for admin help here @Vanamonde93, El C, Bishonen, and RegentsPark: Fowler&fowler «Talk» 18:55, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I confess I cannot figure out what the dispute is here; would anyone care to summarize it? Vanamonde (Talk) 22:22, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I'm with Vanamonde93 on this. Happy to help if someone can give a (very brief) summary. Also pinging @Mar4d: who may be able to help (unfortunately WT:Pakistan appears to be moribund). --RegentsPark (comment) 23:36, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Hello Vanamonde, In the main, India-POV editors have been editing it prolifically adding regions of Pakistan to realms of little-known Hindu, Buddhist, Central Asia-based or India-based kingdoms of the past, especially of the early medieval era. The article had not only become bloated with 14,500 words, but also unduly weighted toward that early medieval (pre-Islamic) period, thereby also giving an opportunity for editors to spam this history of Pakistan page with Hindu- or Buddhist-related images of sculpture, reliefs, or coins—images that would never appear in the history of India or South Asia. There were also some Islamic regional kingdoms whose bloat was not so extensive.Fowler&fowler «Talk» 23:38, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I've reduced it to 11,500 odd words and plan to reduce it further to about 10,000 words which is the size of the FA India. I had written the History of Pakistan page long ago. It has changed quite a bit, of course, since then, but the edits of the last six months have been outsized, i.e. caused the article to be unduly weighted by this underlying POV. I sincerely believe that much of it is caused by the absence of active Pakistani editors. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 23:48, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

This was the state in which I left it in April 2007. It had 9,500 words, beautiful pictures, and balanced content. (It is one of the things, I believe, that Mar4d (mentioned by RegentsPark above) gave me the Pakistan Barnstar of National Merit). I am not of course advocating a return to then—for one the sourcing standards were very different then—but the article's version of this morning had 14,500 words. The sections on neolithic Mehrgarh and IVC, for example, were smaller than their counterparts in the History of India page! But these other kingdoms had picked up the slack.

I've reduced it to this version, and will be reducing some of the post-1947 content as well until the article size is down to approximately 10,000 words Fowler&fowler «Talk» 00:29, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

On the overall, I agree with the thrust of your reversions. There was too much detail about Rai Dynasty, Brahman dynasty etc. but they do need to be mentioned, probably compressed to a couple of lines. Soomra dynasty about which we know nothing of significance definitely doesn't deserve a section. There are too many quotes including in the section on Hindu Shahi etc. which can serve as further grounds for trimming. TrangaBellam (talk) 07:13, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

My only issue is with Fowler&fowler's editorial methodology here: first, the indiscriminate and blanket reverting of the last 6 months worth of edits to his last version, as a preliminary to getting on with his own preferred edits (typical WP:OWN). This shows total disrespect for the contributions of others: 6 months worth of contributions cannot be all wrong (usually...), and some content was probably valuable and legitimate as also suggested by User:Johnbod and User:TrangaBellam. If some undue content has been added during this period, the least would be to start from the latest version, and start improving from there. This is what collaborative editing is about. पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 07:45, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Patliputra, you have been making the same excuse for their gray-zone edits for quite some time. Here is their post from 2019: Talk:Neolithic/Archive_1#PLOS_citation_and_image_spamming where they were spamming the article Neolithic with blatantly copied text and images:

If you think the wording has to be improved, why don't you edit in a collaborative manner as we all do? Mass deletion and edit-warring is certainly not the way to go, and I think you know it. Best पाटलिपुत्र (talk) 12:44, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

It was in response to that remark that Johnbod had written in the same section:

I agree with F&F. Frankly, using your methods you add so much content that checking probably takes longer than adding it. It tends to unbalance articles. Detailed stuff like this is better in lower-level articles, but your additions are nearly all to very high level articles. Johnbod (talk) 13:25, 19 May 2019 (UTC)

Fowler&fowler «Talk» 10:22, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

Please also note my post at Talk:Muhammad of Ghor#Hindu_nationalist_POV where too Patliputra and an editor, Packer and Tracker, have been latterly active. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 10:38, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

I can't afford to get into the weeds here, but I'll note that if the "six months of edits" introduce a lot of content that is subsequently disputed, the onus to reach consensus for inclusion is on the editor seeking inclusion, not removal. Vanamonde (Talk) 20:12, 2 October 2022 (UTC)

@Vanamonde93:I don't think this is a case of WP:BRD, in which one bold new addition by an editor would be challenged, removed, and then require consensus and discussion on the Talk Page. Here, in effect, User:Fowler&fowler is blanket-removing the last 6 months of edits made by numerous different editors, so as to return the article to his last version of 6 months before, as a preliminary to making new edits of his own. He is indiscriminately removing any edits that are not his own, good or bad, on the pretext that there is "too much WP:UNDUE material in the recent edits" , without making the effort to distinguish regular maintenance or improvement edits from the "recent" edits he considers to be undue. I cannot see this as anything other than WP:OWN and a rather uncollaborative and lazy approach to editing, as he is in effect wiping out all contributions that are not the result of his own actions. I doubt that this kind of behaviour, which disregards all contributions by fellow editors, is condoned by Misplaced Pages policy. Please note I am basically uninvolved here, as during the last 6 months I only made one small edit back in May . Looking forward to your clarification. पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 06:25, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

You have a long history of disputes with me, Pataliputra, including several unsuccessful RfCs and ANIs Fowler&fowler «Talk» 11:35, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

I am the main author of this page, the editor who has maintained the page for 16 years. Because of Covid and my partial absence from Misplaced Pages (advertised both on my user page and talk page), I did not get around to monitoring it robustly. Also, some of the edits were not transparent and it took time to figure out what had been added. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 11:40, 3 October 2022 (UTC)

Recent big reversion

This one. Firstly, the article was already too long at the 180K raw bytes version that F&F reverted to, and now is 218K, which is just far too long. As far as I can see, the bulk of the difference is a series of edits by User:Jamal047 and User:Sutyarashi in August and September, mostly copying over material from satellite articles such as those on various medieval kingdoms. Some of this may be a good idea, but there is too much of it. At the least the material needs to be thinned out. Johnbod (talk) 14:28, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

@Johnbod: Yes, my main issue is with the indiscriminate reverting. If there is some undue material, someone could at least have the courtesy to go and edit the content accordingly. 6 months worth of contributions cannot be all wrong (usually...). Best पाटलिपुत्र Pataliputra (talk) 14:35, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I wasn't paying attention to the article size reverted to, only the lead. I agree that there is too much extraneous material, and I'm happy to revert it farther back. The new material is mostly India-POV history being applied Pakistan-related geography. It is the result of Pakistani editors disappearing from Misplaced Pages. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:43, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I've reduced it further. Despite my reduction, it still remains in very poor state. It seems that long and biases histories are being written here about empires that would not be possible on the empire's own pages because those are being better monitored for UNDUE Fowler&fowler «Talk» 16:53, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

The page's prose size was 14,371 words. The most obscure Indian kingdoms which are not mentioned anywhere in India#History make their appearance here. I have removed the UNDUE additions and brought the size down to 11,507 words. It needs to be reduced further to 10,000 words. The size of the Indai page, for example, is 10,662 words Fowler&fowler «Talk» 17:05, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

Content removal

@पाटलिपुत्र:, @Fowler&fowler:, @Sutyarashi: Fowler reverted some recent edits because of "too much WP:UNDUE material". My question is why my contributions got deleted. I believe I literally improved the page with my contributions. Could someone explain to me how my edits were wrong? Jamal047 (talk) 14:30, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

I have opened a thread above. Please don't disrespect Misplaced Pages policy by starting a new thread. State what you need to in the thread above. Fowler&fowler «Talk» 14:38, 1 October 2022 (UTC)

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