Talk:Telangana Rebellion/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Catlemur (talk · contribs) 15:38, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

I will begin the review shortly.--Catlemur (talk) 15:38, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

Thank you, I did not expect it to be picked up so soon. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 17:00, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

• Alpabetize the list of sources.

• When citing multiple pages write pp. 205-206. instead of p. 205-206.

• Can you include a map of the Hyderabad State into the article? Preferably with Telangana being highlighted there is some way.

• The article would greatly benefit from a short introductory paragraph on the fact that Hyderabad State (and Telangana) was a part of the British Raj, where it was located etc. This is blatantly obvious for Indian readers, but very useful for readers from other parts of the world.

• "Peasants being worked on a field in Hyderabad State (1890s)"→"Peasants working on a field in Hyderabad State (1890s)".

• "which later become the epicenter of the insurrection"→"which later became the epicenter of the insurrection".

• "as more land was passed to either to the urban interests and aristocratic durra landlords or to Marwadi and Maratha sahukars (money-lenders)"→"as more land was passed either to the urban interests and aristocratic durra landlords or to Marwadi and Maratha sahukars (money-lenders)".

• More to come later.--Catlemur (talk) 17:56, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, I've add an introductory paragraph on Hyderabad State before the subsection on Feudal System, tell me what you think. Till now, I haven't been able to find a decent map of Hyderabad State which highlights the region of Telangana so I've just added a generic map of the state with the caption mentioning the divisions that correspond with Telangana. Otherwise, I've fixed the grammatical mistakes, the citations and alphabetised the list. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 07:03, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

  Hi Tayi Arajakate, if you'd like, I can convert the map which appears in Sundarayya's Telegana People's Struggle and its Lessons (1972) to an svg for wiki use. Let me know. Regards, Goldsztajn (talk) 06:24, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

  Goldsztajn, yes that'd be great. I know about this map, it's the most detailed map of the extent of the rebellion that I've seen. The details in the map also seem to match up with other sources but it might fall under copyright so a rendering of it probably needs to be based on it rather than a direct copy no? Tayi Arajakate _Talk 10:08, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

  Tayi Arajakate, to be clear, I'll make a new map using Sundarayya as a source. Regards, Goldsztajn (talk) 10:34, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

• "from influence of their relatives" - Rephrase this.

• "The first communist organisation were established in Warangal"→"The first communist organisation was established in Warangal".

• Niizam→I assume its Nizam

• "The demands also included the Andhra communists call for the breakup of Hyderabad State"→communists'

• "who advocated restraint opposing activities against the "law and order" of the state"→"who advocated restraint, opposing activities against the "law and order" of the state".

• "mask organisation"→front organisation (wikilink it as well).

• Avoid terms such as iconic, as they go against MOS:PEACOCK. If a historian brands something as iconic you can instead write "Indian historian X has desribed the Y photo/film as iconic.

• "aggravated by price rise"→"aggravated by rising prices"

• According to MOS:NUMERAL, integers from zero to nine are spelled out in words.--Catlemur (talk) 17:45, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, I've addressed all the mentioned issues now. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 22:32, 12 September 2021 (UTC)

• "Razakar movement" - Were they not a paramilitary organization?

• "in retaliation to the killing"→"in retaliation for the killing".

• police peasant battles→police–peasant battles

• the number of police unit assigned to the rebellious regions→police units

• The rebels neither had firearms or the training to use them→The rebels had neither firearms nor the training to use them,

• One of the most significant impact of the rebellion→One of the most significant impacts of the rebellion

• "and were spasmodic in their actions with no systemically planned offensives" - Who? I assume you are speaking about the peasants.

• "epicenter" - I don't know much about Indian English, but since its based on British English, shouldn't it be epicentre?

• "Some degree of co-ordination continued to occur especially with increase in police repression" - Did the coordination continue due to the increase of police repression? Please reword this sentence.

• "reached its highest point with independence of India" → "reached its highest point upon the end of British rule in India" or "upon Indian independence".

I am really busy IRL, I will leave comments in chunks. So far the main issue with the article is grammar/vocabulary. I think it could benefit from a proper review by Wikipedia:COPYEDITORS, as I am not a native speaker myself.Catlemur (talk) 17:04, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

• "which was joined en masse by villagers"→which were joined

• "the armed assaults became excessively frequently"→excessively frequent

• Wikilink war rape instead of tactic of terror.

• to be draw→to be drawn

• the former was demoralised→the former were demoralised

• The rising tensions between the Dominion of India the Nizam→The rising tensions between the Dominion of India and the Nizam

• favored→favoured

• all and any→any and all

• surrender within a week after minimal resistance→surrendered within a week after minimal resistance

• as retribution for their atrocities in the preceding months and year→ as retribution for their past atrocities

Catlemur, leaving comments in chunks is alright with me, this nomination has also attracted multiple other reviewers so the review is going to be pretty thorough anyways. I will ping you as I go along addressing chunks if that's alright with you. I have addressed all the issues mentioned till now, excluding "Razakar movement" and "epicenter". To answer the questions regarding them, the razakars were both a paramilitary and a movement within the Ittehad (The Ittehad when it was formed was a reserved organisation with the only goal of supporting the Nizam while the razakars emerged as a militant Muslim nationalist faction aligned with the Pakistan movement within them) and this article is in Indian English, not in British English per se although the spellings are usually pretty much the same, however "center" and "centre" are both be used in Indian English from what I've seen. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 15:09, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

• Remove the italics from guerilla, it is a commonly used English language term.

• the leftists congressmen involved→leftist congressmen

• with the understanding the further repression would only popularise the communists→that further repression

• the rebellion was officially declared as withdrawn by the Central Committee of the Communist Party→the Central Committee of the Communist Party officially declared the end of the rebellion

• and had contest through a registered unrecognised organisation→and had contested through a registered, unrecognised organisation

• the divisions that emerged within the rebel camp persisted and lead to the 1964 split→ persisted and led to the 1964 split

• The infobox states that the anti-communists received support from the British Empire and later from the US. The main body of the article does not make that really clear. It seems like the British were largely apathetic to what was going on, while the Americans morally supported the suppression of the rebellion. But there is no mention of any sort of material or military aid.

• Did the rebels receive any support from communist organisations outside of India?--Catlemur (talk) 16:53, 17 September 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, I have just seen one mention of communist involvement from outside India in Elliott 1974 in a note which states that the CPSU had informed the CPI in 1951 that it would not support "a liberation struggle against the Indian government", from what I know Nehru was on friendly terms with the USSR so I suppose that's about it.

  Regarding the British, they did become apathetic in their attitude towards the rebellion by 1947 but all intelligence operations were under the direct administration of the central government of British Raj. And they were conducting intelligence operations for the state administration from 1941 onwards in the Andhra Mahasabha, the agitations of 1944–46 and the early stage of the rebellion. The Resident was also involved in directing police action during the same period. Should I make a mention of this in the article? Regarding the Americans, there was no material or military aid from them (or at least I've not seen any mention of anything like that in the sources) but they more or less provided the impetus for the suppression which I tried to represent in the infobox.

  I have otherwise addressed the mentioned issues, including some I had missed earlier. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 13:21, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

The infobox is a summary of the contents of the main article. Please make the role of the British and the Americans explicitly clear in the article.--Catlemur (talk) 16:03, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

Catlemur, I have added a couple lines about the British and expanded on the line about the American involvement. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 17:08, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

• Add access date to ref 98.

• ref 40 pp into p, since its a single page.

• Rename Bibliography into Sources since you are not citing books exclusively.

• Move all the sources not currently cited in the article into Further Reading.

• distinct category of land called jagirs.→jagir

• The jagirs and diwani tenures respectively constituted around 30% – Why is jagirs pluralized but diwani isn't?

• There tenants called shikmidars - Shouldn't it be These tenants?

• Their power of the deshmukhs → The power

• The diwani lands legally held by the government, was divided → were divided

• British Indian Empire→British Raj

• and officials instead reprimanded→ and officials were instead reprimanded

• Telangana had higher concentration of land→ had a higher

• They could determine taxation rates and managed the survey of land, peasants had to offer nazaranas→ of land; peasants had--Catlemur (talk) 17:02, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, I intend to incorporate some information from most of the unused refs into the article but for the time being I've moved them to a further reading section. Also the term jagir can be used to refer to a parcel of land (under the jagirdari system) while diwani refers to a system so its plural form is diwani tenures. I've otherwise fixed all the mentioned issues. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 21:22, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

• "people would drop out and return to their village after coming some distances while others would join in" - Reword the after coming some distances part.

• the number of police units assigned to the rebellious regions were exponentially increased.→was exponentially increased

• started attempting→began attempting

• started discussions with the rebels to make preparations for open warfare with Hyderabad State in the future→initiated dialogue with the rebels in preparation for open warfare with the Hyderabad State.

• the peasants uprising had started as a spontaneous upsurge and was spasmodic in their actions - Reword this passage.

• The use of famous in the Legacy section also falls under MOS:PEACOCK, please reword the sentences containing it.

• the communist predominant Andhra Conference - communist dominated or predominantly communist

• 164 delegates from the three organisations - Sentences should not begin with a numeral per MOS:NUMNOTES.

• "a more militant mass movement but were prevented from doing so" - "a more militant mass movement, but were prevented from doing so"

• issued a statement denouncing "barren constitutionalism" → issued a statement denouncing the "barren constitutionalism"

• "would not be able to stop attacks on government officials by villagers without an administrative overhaul" - Remove by villagers, it is self evident.

• Dwarkanath Kachru who was had arrived in Hyderabad→ Dwarkanath Kachru who had arrived in Hyderabad

• The Communist Party added merger with India into its list of demands and aligned themselves with the Indian National Congress → The Communist Party added the merger with India into its list of demands and aligned itself with the Indian National Congress

• rape against women as a tactic of terror - Only the word rape should be wikilinked to Wartime sexual violence.--Catlemur (talk) 18:23, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, I think I've addressed all the above mentioned issues now. Regarding the first one I rephrased the sentence to "... people would drop out and return to their village after coming some distance, while others from the villages they passed through would take their place and keep the movement going." I'm not sure if I've made it more comprehensible, what do you think? Tayi Arajakate _Talk 02:41, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

Well done. Here are some more comments:

• "The rebels equipped with firearms" - Prior to this you mention that the rebels only had stones and lathis in their possession, can you expand on how they acquired those weapons?

• Are there any casualty estimates for the conflict?

• There are mentions of coordination between different communist rebel units in the article, so was the leadership completely localised as the infobox claims or were there some people in charge of developing an overall strategy, implementing offensives?

• "the Andhra and Telangana communist set up a joint revolutionary headquarter on Mungala estate" → "the Andhra and Telangana communists set up a joint revolutionary headquarter at the Mungala estate."

• Against the government forces, the rebels suffered from a persistent shortage of modern firearms → The rebels suffered from a persistent shortage of modern firearms

• You are using both guerilla and guerrilla in the article, only the latter is correct.

• the villages dug trenches around them → the rebels dug trenches around the villages

• The rebellion went on successful campaign of territorial expansion → The rebels went on a successful campaign of territorial expansion--Catlemur (talk) 16:29, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, there is no consolidated casualty estimate of the entire conflict, only scattered figures for some parts of it. Regarding leadership, the section on "Communes and guerrilla squads" gives more details on their organisation, the communes and their garrisons were localised but the guerrilla squads developed a separate chain of command with Mungala as their HQ. The village squads were sometimes attached with the guerrilla organisation for major operations. I could mention the Mungala HQ in the infobox I suppose? But there isn't much known on who were in-charge at Mungala, since participation in the rebellion remained in a legal twilight zone and the HQ didn't have authority over the communes anyways. It was disclosed later that Puchalapalli Sundarayya worked there but only mentioning him in the infobox would give an inaccurate impression that he was "the leader" when no source describes him as such. There are also scattered names of other leaders but it includes commune committee members, sangham organisers, squad and zonal commanders, etc which would only lead to an incomplete list of local leaders. Other than these two, I've addressed the new points mentioned. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 23:37, 30 September 2021 (UTC)

I see. Here are some extra comments:

• Dominion of India is wikilinked twice.

• "as an assurance for providing support for justification of the military action to the international community." - Reword this part.

• accompanied with victory celebrations→accompanied by

• did not inducted any local police personnel→did not induct

• Chaudhuri also issued warning to even the policemen from outside the state → Chaudhuri also issued a warning to policemen from outside the state

• Both the sides kept sniping at each other, the former were described as "right wing reformists" while the latter were described as "left wing adventurists" by the other side respectively. → Both sides exchanged mutual accusations, denouncing each other as "right wing reformists" and "left wing adventurists" respectively.--Catlemur (talk) 16:38, 1 October 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, alright. I've fixed these issues now. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 05:28, 2 October 2021 (UTC)

• the size of individual squads were reduced to five from ten→ was reduced

• tribal communities were en masse evacuated→were evacuated en masse

• was aggressively campaigning within the party for the withdrawal of the rebellion→was aggressively campaigning within the party for hostilities to end

• convinced by the party to accept that continuation was a mistake.→that the continuation of armed struggle was a mistake.

• "The demands included halt on all land evictions, withdrawal of the military and release of all detained communists, which were rejected by the Congress but the communists decided to call off the rebellion regardless of it." → The demands included a halt on all land evictions, the withdrawal of the military and the release of all detained communists, which were rejected by the Congress but the communists decided to call off the rebellion regardless.

• and were reorganised separate from the organisation→separately

• The individual squad were composed of 10 combatants within them.→Each individual squad was composed of 10 combatants.

• Ilamma was part of one of the first instance of resistance→ first instances--Catlemur (talk) 16:08, 5 October 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, done as well. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 03:10, 6 October 2021 (UTC)

• The paramedics trained in ad hoc facilities by the doctors were able to contain a cholera→ The paramedics trained in ad hoc facilities by the doctors, were able to contain a cholera

• There was a renewed interest by academics and activists on the rebellion in the 1970s and 80s→There was a renewed interest in the rebellion among academics and activists in the 1970s and 80s.

• The rebellion has since become a source of legends and inspiration in Telangana and among the radical and progressive left across India.→ The rebellion has since become a source of legends and inspiration among Telangana's population as well as the radical and progressive left across India.

• The movement catalysed by food crisis after the Second World War escalated into a rebellion→The movement was catalysed by a food crisis that affected the region following the end of the Second World War, escalating into a rebellion which the administration and the durras attempted to suppress.

• The rebellion was ended when the military administration set up by the Nehru government unexpectedly launched an attack on the communes immediately following the annexation of Hyderabad to fulfill assurances given by V. P. Menon to the American embassy, leading to an eventual call for the withdrawal of the rebellion by the Communist Party of India on 25 October 1951. → The rebellion ended when the military administration set up by the Nehru government unexpectedly launched an attack on the communes immediately following the annexation of Hyderabad to fulfill assurances given by V. P. Menon to the American embassy, leading to an eventual call for the rebels to lay down arms issued by the Communist Party of India on 25 October 1951.--Catlemur (talk) 16:19, 7 October 2021 (UTC)

  Catlemur, done as well. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 03:11, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

• You need to add a United States public domain tag for all the images in the article.--Catlemur (talk) 16:08, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
  • Additionally I don't think most of the images are PD-US. 1948+60 = out of copyright in India in 2008 according to the copyright rules, but for it to be PD-US it would have to be out of copyright by 1996 (see URAA). (t · c) buidhe 16:59, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

    1948+50, since "Photographs created before 1961 are in the public domain 50 years after creation, as per the Copyright Act 1911." But yeah, still it just about doesn't make it. There are a lot of photographs created between 1946–61 under PD-India which are displayed on high visibility and high importance articles (e.g: commons:File:Jnehru.jpg, commons:File:Gandhi fasting 1948.jpg, etc) so does PD-1996 apply to all of them? Note that these are all under an UK law; some are also from Raj (till 1947) and Dominion period (1947–50), while the US did have copyright relations prior to 1996 with the UK, if that makes any difference. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 18:45, 15 October 2021 (UTC)

    Yes, there are a lot of images used on Wikipedia in violation of copyright rules. This is partly because the rules are quite arcane and many Wikipedians are neither experts nor particularly interested in the technicalities. The URAA copyright restoration date for UK is 1 January 1996 also. (t · c) buidhe 05:52, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

    Oh well, I have now replaced the photographs which don't meet PD-1996 with a couple that do. I'll have to dig deeper later to see if there are any photographs from the rebellion itself which were explicitly released in the public domain before 96, but this is the best I can do with regards to illustration at present. I have a question regarding this restriction though, since it's fixed to a specific date does that mean that these photographs under the present rules are just forever copyright protected? Tayi Arajakate _Talk 10:17, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

Pinging Catlemur. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 10:21, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose, spelling, and grammar): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (reference section): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR): d (copyvio and plagiarism):

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 and other media, where possible and appropriate.

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

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail: --Catlemur (talk) 16:34, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

   Catlemur, the article is rife with grammatical errors. I have nothing against the GA pass (this is very well-deserved) but please correct them. TrangaBellam (talk) 17:14, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

   Thank you. I read through the article again and fixed some remaining ones. I don't think there are many others left but I do tend to miss words, make typos, etc so I've listed it at GOCE now. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 18:31, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

   TrangaBellam I am sorry but that is not going to happen. I've read the article 5 times from end to end and sunk an insane amount of my already extremely limited free time into improving it. I've requested the nominator to take it to the Copyeditor's Guild but he chose not to do it for whatever reason. I value my sanity over a Wikipedia article on Indian history any day of the week.--Catlemur (talk) 17:53, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

Comments by DaxServer

• I see four instances of "escalade". Is that correct or is it escalate? — DaxServer (talk to me) 08:20, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

  Oops, I've corrected them now. DaxServer, thanks for bringing it up. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 08:56, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

• Also, some of the book citations were not used in the article body. Do you want too keep them in the current sections or move to a "Further reading" section? This user script might help to see which are not used: User:Trappist the monk/HarvErrors — DaxServer (talk to me) 08:58, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

  DaxServer, I plan on eventually going through them one by one and incorporating them in the article if suitable so I'd like to keep em for now. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 09:08, 10 September 2021 (UTC)

Comments by TB

Copyedits

• autocratic feudal kingdom -> feudal monarchy.
• known as durras in Telangana -> known as durras
• The conditions were worsened -> rm were
• post–war food crisis -> What war? (Not so obvious)
• agents of a durra estate -> rm estate. Where did it happen?
• The rebels established ... -> Separate paragraph.
• The rebellion at its peak in 1948 -> At its peak in 1948, the rebellion
• by the leftists -> by the left bloc

Hey TrangaBellam, thank you for your comments. I assume these were all in reference to the lead, if so I've implememted most of them now, with a few exceptions. I have left "known as durras in Telangana" as is, since it specifies that the term was only used in Telangana and not in say Marathawada which was also a region of Hyderabad. I also changed "leftists" to "left wing faction" instead of "left bloc", I haven't seen any source using the term bloc to refer to them. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 08:58, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

I had only read the read and I agree with your changes. I will take a look at the rest of the article. TrangaBellam (talk) 09:56, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Alright, that'd great but to be clear, don't feel obligated to do so though, I was only clarifying. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 10:18, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

• Hyderabad State situated on the Deccan Plateau in southern India was a princely state -> two states in the line, one is redundant.

• Why not rewrite as, Situated on the Deccan Plateau in southern India, Hyderabad was a princely state

• and had a patrimonial system ruled by the Nizam of Hyderabad -> doesn't make sense.
• Why not use bullets and sub-bullets for describing the three linguistic regions? Visually appealing.
• diwani or khalsa and a special category of land called jagirs -> diwani (or khalsa) and jagirs.
• various forms of exorbitant arb. -> various exorbitant and arb.
• Sarf-e-khas were jagir lands held as the crown lands of -> A part of the jagir were held as the crown lands (Sarf-e-khas) of

• Link Sarf-e-khas.

• the Nizam of Hyderabad -> the Nizam
• whose influence enabled them to frequently acquire more lands and push -> who frequently acquired more lands and pushed

I think I've now addressed most of the issue brought up above. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 15:56, 16 September 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, will go through the later sections. TrangaBellam (talk) 16:27, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

Salient issues

• Nothing is spoken of the poor irrigation facilities, which was a sig. factor in peasant discontent.
• The revenue system and classification of lands is described very simplistically. Consult V. Ramakrishna Reddy, Economic History of Hyderabad State.
• Nothing is mentioned about the longstanding oppression - say, installation of Salar Jung I. His idiosyncratic "reforms" were essential in the formation of landed Deshmukhs. Or the role of Residents in introducing the practice of bonded labor.

• I will appreciate a more detailed background.

TrangaBellam, I have added some details in the section on feudal system, but I'll have to somewhat disagree here. The background is already a large part of the article and there's a lot to the system so if I go really in depth, it'll start deviating from the topic. Therefore, I have based it on the descriptions provided in the references that are about the rebellion, a detailed description probably belongs on the article about Hyderabad State and Feudalism in India (and their sub-articles). For example, there are many forms of jagirs which vary in terms of the scale, title-holder, the relation between the state and the estate, etc but the variation is dismissed by Dhanagare as being irrelevant to the peasantry. Regarding irrigation, I have added a line but at least for the rebellion it isn't described as a separate significant factor of discontent, they were being introduced but the problem was that the lands which got them was a target for hijacking by the durras. I also couldn't find anything that elaborates on vetti and baghela bonded labour being introduced by the Residents, it's not indenture so I don't think they would be the ones to introduce it. Anyways tell me what you think of the current state of the section. Tayi Arajakate _Talk 15:59, 16 September 2021 (UTC)