Talk:Birbhum district/GA1

GA Review

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I will be reviewing this article over the next several days. If you have any comments on the article, you are welcome to post them below. SBC-YPR (talk) 13:28, 25 March 2009 (UTC)

Review

Thank you for nominating this article for good article review. I have assessed it against the six good article criteria, and commented in detail below:

1. Writing:

(a) Prose

• A few sentences that are in need of correction :

• The western region of Birbhum is a bushy plateau, a part of the Chhotanagpur terrain. Does the flora consist of mainly bushes? Also, 'bushy region' and 'Chhotangpur plateau' would sound more appropriate. - Done
• ("pathless country of Ladha (Rarh) in Vajjabhumi and Subbhabhumi (probably suhma)") The over-bracketisation could be done away with by internal linking, for instance Ladha instead of "Ladha (Rarh)", and so on. - Done
• The Rarh region was part of the Maurya empire. It was subsequently included in the empire of the... The use of the word 'subsequently' in the second sentence would require the use of 'initially' in the first. - Done
• Minhaj-i-Siraj, the author of the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri mentions about Lakhnur, the headquarters This could be better worded as 'Minhaj-i-Siraj, in his work Tabaqat-i-Nasiri, mentions Lakhnur as the headquarters... etc.' - Done
• Delimitation was made effective for all elections in the state of West Bengal that is held on or after 19 February 2008 The tense needs to be consistent. - Done
• Wild leopards and bears are not to be seen any more This could be better worded as 'Leopards and bears are not to be seen any more in the wild'. - Done
• Tantrics (including the Vajrayana, Shaktas), Replace the parantheses by commas. - Done

• The coordinates mentioned in Geography section - Situated between 23° 32' 30" (right above the tropic of cancer) and 24° 35' 0" north latitude and 87° 5' 25" and 88° 1' 40" east longitudes - could use the relevant template. - Cannot locate template showing a range of coordinates

(b) Manual of style

• The lead section is rather scant and could be expanded and improved using these guidelines. - Done
• Layout

• The four paragraphs in the sub-section Medieval Age could be merged into two by combining the first two and last two paragraphs. - Done
• The sub-section Modern Era could use a copyedit. - Done
• The sub-section Rivers requires a copyedit for grammar. - Done
• In the Subdivisions section, the second, third and fourth sentences (details of subdivisions) should be omitted as they are repeated later. - Done
• The sections on Subdivisions and Legislative Constituencies could be merged into one section titled Political and administrative divisions. - Done
• The two paragraphs in the Transport section could be merged into one. Also, information on inland waterways and airports, if any, could be added. - Done No information available on waterways and airports
• The sentence on Amartya Sen could be moved from the lead section to the sub-section on Personalities under the Culture section. - Done

• Peacock terms and weasel words should be avoided :

• Some have opined that - Done
• The red soil and the shallow serpentine rivers ridden with sand islands have inspired the poets from this land. - Done
• The folk culture of Birbhum is specially enriched - Done
• According to some authorities, these are transformed old deities - Done

• Overlinking in the article should be removed. - Done

2. Sourcing:

(a) References

• Generally satisfactory where existing. See also the comments on "in-line citations" below:

(b) In-line citations

• The following sentences or phrases in the article need to be referenced with a citation:

• Other than Tagore, another Nobel laureate Amartya Sen lived here. - Done
• The name Birbhum comes probably from the term Land (Bhumi) of the Brave (Bir). - Done
• Some have opined that the district bears the name of Bir kings who ruled in the area. - Done
• Mythology has it that the forests of Bajrabhumi (west Birbhum) were hot-spots of Hindu and tantric activities.:::*The western portion of the district is historically known as Vajjabhumi or Bajrabhumi. - Done
• Now Goddess Manasa is worshiped for protection from snake bite. - Done
• usual characteristics of rice fields in Bengal - Done

(c) Original research

• The following sentences would constitute original research and need to be removed :

• Festivities have added to the joy of the people and these have varied with the seasons - Done
• According to the Dharmapuran, even kings worshipped Dharma Thakur. In some places there are festivals called Dharmer Gajan - Done

3. Broadness:

(a) Topic coverage

• The article broadly addresses all relevant aspects of the topic.

(b) Focus

• The section on Culture could be hived off to a separate article and only the essentials retained here, in accordance with summary style. - Done

4. Neutrality:

The following sentences need to be reworded in accordance with the NPOV policy.

• Replete with diversity, this land has inspired many cultural and religious movements in history. - Done

Instead of repeatedly using this land, use the district which is more neutral.

5. Stablility:

• The edit history reveals the article to be stable, with no major content disputes or edit wars.

6. Images:

(a) Copyright status

• This image does not appear to be a work of the U.S. government, but has been stated to be so on its description page on Commons. This would defeat Wikipedia's copyright policy and should be removed. - Done
• Other images do not appear to have problems with copyright status.

(b) Relevance and captioning

• The image depicting terracota carvings at Kendubillo and Surul appear to have no direct connection to the article, as neither of these places find any mention in the article. - Done mentioned places in the article
• Either of the terracotta design images could be deleted as it would not add any significant value to the article in the presence of the other.- Done
• A picture each of the flora and fauna, Poush Mela and any famous personality from the district could be added if available, with suitable captions. - One pic added, others not available

As a result of the above, I have placed the article on hold. Editors have upto two weeks to make necessary changes, after which a reassessment will be carried out. Feel free to contact me on my talk page for any clarifications. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 18:14, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Request for more time

User:Chandan Guha who made a lot of useful contributions recently on this article, has taken a break for two weeks on 14th April. So, requesting for more time for implementing the suggested changes.--GDibyendu (talk) 18:01, 18 April 2009 (UTC)

Granted. Hold period will be extended by ten days till May 9. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 14:48, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Note from reviewer

I'm just back from a wikibreak that got prolonged due to internet connectivity issues. My connection seems to be working fine now, and I will start assessing the changes that have been made to the article over the past three weeks (and the incorporation of suggestions made in the review) from today. A report of the same should be ready in a couple of days, and based on that I will take a decision whether to pass or fail the article. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 18:04, 19 May 2009 (UTC)

Report of Assessment

Apologies for the delay - my connection continues to give me trouble and I am able to access WP only intermittently. I have assessed the changes made to the article based on the earlier review, and a report of the same follows.

1. Writing:

(a) Prose

• Although the article has improved tremendously in terms of prose, some work still needs to be done in correcrting grammatical errors which are still present. Sentences could also be better organised in the structuring of paragraphs - in particular the lead and sections on economy and flora and fauna.
• Consistency needs to be maintained - for instance, all terms like "Vajjabhumi" need to be italicised throughout the article. Done
• All units should be metric (SI) units per the Indian Wikiproject guidelines and imperial equivalents such as acres, miles etc. may be mentioned after the SI unit. Done
• Avoid mentioning names of unknown places or persons before describing them. Specific instances of this have been mentioned in the sections below.

(b) Manual of style

• The lead section has taken on a better shape now. However, here are a souple of suggestions to improve it further (apart from the general restructuring mentioned above):
  • The fact that it borders Jharkhand could be indicated in the sentence about its location, per the Indian Wikiproject guidelines. Done
  • The demographics sound repetitive and do not add any real value to the lead. They could be removed. Done
• Layout
  • Since the etymology of the district is not very elaborate, it does not require a separate section and could be added as a paragraph of the lead. Also, are the first and second sentences about the etymology related? If so, please indicate the same.Done Also, the first sentence states the theory that it could simply mean land of the brave. Second sentence states 'another' theory that it was named after a royal family who ruled there. These two are unrelated theory; 'Another theory' should indicate that to the reader. However, digging out more info to elaborate the difference would be difficult to get.--GDibyendu (talk) 14:11, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
  • Shifting the Geography section to just before the History section would be useful in understanding terms like Vajjabhumi which are otherwise not explained earlier.Done
  • The section on Political and Administrative divisions should be updated to reflect the current status after the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. The sub-section on impact of delimitation could be shortened or merged with the preceding section, if need be.Done
  • The first two sentences in the second paragraph of the Culture section could be moved to the end of the paragraph for maintaining coherence.Done
  • Similarly, the last sentences of the sub-section on Personalities could be moved to the beginning of the preceding paragraph, in order to maintain continuity.Done
  • The statistics on educational institutions in the Literacy and education could be better incorporated into a list. Done

2. Sourcing:

(a) References

• The existing references are generally satisfactory. However, efforts could be made to diversify the number of sources - a majority of the references seem to be from a single magazine. See also the comments on "in-line citations" below: (added more references)

(b) In-line citations

• The following sentences require citations:
  • One traditional village level religious team sport of Birbhum is "baich khela" which is a competition of taking the whole idol of goddess Durga and her companion icons on bamboo supports and carrying it around with lots of lights ("hajak lights"), dhak (drum) beat and fanfare all around the village. Unable to locate reference - deleted

I wrote the above based on my personal experience. Baich is a local term for competetion, I am not sure of its etymology. It is more often used for boat races in many parts of greater Bengal which are rich in rivers. Reference for boat races called baich can be found in many magazines and official sites:

• http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/10/02/cover.htm
• http://www.barrackpore.gov.in/HTM/sdobkp_river_khals.htm

In the neighbouring Murshidabad district the baich happens on boat. But since majority of the villages in Birbhum are inland they hold the race on the land. I will try to get somebody to get a picture of baich khela, but would that become original research? Do I need to publish an article in a peer reviewed magazine first before it can be put up on wikipedia? Hajak in the local language refers to petromax lamps. --Dr.saptarshi (talk) 21:03, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

If you can find a suitable reference like the above two, pertaining to a baich held in Birbhum, it would constitute a valid reference and the deleted text could be replaced. Wikipedia's [original research policy does not apply to images - so you can upload any of your own, as long as they comply with the image upload guidelines. An article, on the other hand, would have to be published first before it can be cited on Wikipedia. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 03:54, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

• • Nanoor is the birthplace of the 14th century poet Chandidas Rami. Done
  • Some wild boars and wolves may still be found in the small forests of Chinpai, Bandarsol and Charicha. Done

(c) Original research

• The article now appears to be free from original research.

3. Broadness:

(a) Topic coverage

• The article broadly addresses all relevant aspects of the topic.

(b) Focus

• Satisfactory. The requirements of summary style have been adhered to.

4. Neutrality:

• The article represents viewpoints fairly and without bias.

5. Stability:

• The edit history reveals the article to be stable, with no major content disputes or edit wars.

6. Images:

(a) Copyright status

• The images are tagged and have no problem with copyright status.

(b) Relevance and captioning

• The images are relevant to the topic and have suitable captions.

As a result of the above, I have decided to keep the article on hold, as I am of the opinion that the editors are capable of making the required changes in order to upgrade this article to GA-status. I will also help out with copyediting. The final assessment of changes will be carried out at the end of ten days from today, and I will take a final call as to whether to pass or fail the article. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 09:31, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Final review

GA review (see here for criteria)

---

The article has grown in strength and quality over the past couple of months, and full credits are due to the editors who worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to achieve this. I am glad to state that the article now meets all the good article criteria. However, I would recommend a peer review before this article is taken up at FAC.

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   If you feel that this review is in error, feel free to take it up for reassessment. Thank you to all of the editors who worked hard to bring it to this status, and congratulations. Regards, SBC-YPR (talk) 04:02, 11 June 2009 (UTC)