hi,
I got this email from a user. I have pointed him/her to the mailing list and am sharing it
here.
warm regards,
Pradeep
User:Prad2609
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Frankly Idontcare <idontcarefrankly(a)yahoo.com>
Date: 22 November 2011 18:50
Subject: Blatant misinformation and vandalism of India articles on Wikipedia
To: "pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com" <pradeep.mohandas(a)gmail.com>
Dear Pradeep Mohandas,
I got your e-mail address from your user page on wikipedia. I understand that you were
involved in the Wikipedia conference that was held in Mumbai in November 2011. This should
mean that you are part of Wikipedia. I have to bring to your attention, an issue, that has
been bothering me from a long time.
There are a few administrators on
Wikipedia who "legally vandalise" pages related to India and block anyone who
disagrees with their point of view. (POV) For example, if you view the "India"
article on Wikipedia, you will notice that the introduction does not do justice to what is
arguably the greatest civilization in world history. It is heavily biased and doesn't
mention the fact that India is the oldest and the oldest continuing civilization in
history. It doesn't mention the fact that India is an emerging superpower. The page is
being constantly monitored and vandalised by a group of users/administrators who seem to
have an inherent bias towards India. I tried editing the page, but was unable to do so
because of the following users: Fowler&fowler, Saravask, Quigley, Elockid and
ElockidAlternate. Of all the mentioned users, Fowler&fowler and Elockid (
ElockidAlternate is his alternate account) are by FAR, the worst. they seem to have
something
against India and Indians. Fowler&fowler has continually uploaded offensive images
in the demographics and economy sectionof the India article and made disparaging remarks
about India and Indians! He is an administrator!!
Moving on to Elockid and ElockidAlternate (same user with another account). Go through the
Economic History of India
article. Under GDP Estimate, the following sentence was deleted by ElockidAlternate:
"According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book ''The World
Economy: A Millennial Perspective'', India had the world's largest economy
from the first to the 18th century, with a (32.9%) share of world [[GDP]] in the 1st
century to (28.9%) in 1000 AD, and in 1700 AD with (24.4%)."
<ref>The World Economy: Historical Statistics, Angus Maddison</ref>"
and this sentence was replaced by:
"According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book Contours of the world
economy, 1-2030 AD: essays in macro-economic history, India had the world's largest
economy during the years 1 AD and 1000 AD"
Now, let me tell you how this is wrong on SO many levels:1) The first statement is
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT and the book clearly mentions that India had the largest economy from
the first to the eighteenth century!
2) In the book " Contours of the world economy", the author clearly mentions
that India had the largest economy from the first to the 16th century and in the 17th
century! the sentence uploaded by Elockid or ElockidAlternate is wrong!
I have tried to correct this error and I got blocked for being a "sockpuppet",
even though i am not! I tried reporting on the Vandalism noticeboard, but i got blocked
from editing the vandalism noticeboard!!! Is there anyway I can alert Jimmy Wales about
the constant anti - Indian editing by some administrators on Wikipedia? Also, is there any
way you can correct these edits, cuz a lot of people may be exposed to this
misinformation! Please get back to me.
Regards,Frustrated
editor!