Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Malwa

Malwa

This article is about a historical and cultural region in India We have been working on this article for quite a while now. Tom Radulovich has had a key role to play in bringing the article to this standard, and I also appreciate the constructive comments of Nichalp. It contains all information on the topic we found on the internet on the subject and all books that we could grab. It is certainly more extensive than articles on the subject on other encyclopedias, and everything is properly referenced. All images are properly tagged. It is gone through a Peer review, and all suggestions (there weren't too many) have been incorporated. deeptrivia (talk) 01:46, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support as nominator. deeptrivia (talk) 01:46, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
• Weak Oppose -- There are some problems with the image tags, I don't think some should be tagged as {{money}} as the governments are long gone. The map should also have a tag. For India-related articles, metric measures should be given first priority. Please use the non breaking space   between a number and its unit. 50 m; 45 °C etc. Matter in the infobox should be duplicated in the ==Demographics== section (rename the title). Please let me know once this is done. =Nichalp «Talk»= 06:08, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I wasn't sure of the source of one image, so I removed it, replacing it with another one. I made all other changes, like conversion to metric units. deeptrivia (talk) 07:24, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Conditional Support -- I haven't read the full text to lend full support, so I'll keep it as conditional till I read it. [Note: it may be taken as a support vote in the final tally.] =Nichalp «Talk»= 08:44, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support Well written article. -- Sundar ^{\talk \contribs} 09:26, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support - some reservations regarding the length of the article though. The boilerplate approach is well thought-thru. (May I play as a critic of this on your user-talk page deeptrivia before commenting it here?) --Regards. Miljoshi | talk 09:44, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Although the article is 37 kb compared to the optimal size of 32 kb, a significant space is also occupied by References (including lengthy URLs not visible in normal mode), and tags for creating table, etc. I think the length is reasonable, although I'll be willing to shorten some text if it's possible without losing information. deeptrivia (talk) 06:01, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

• Weak Support. Weak Oppose. I feel like more should be said about the economy; that section seems very sparse. - Cuivienen 14:42, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Since this is a historical region, no longer considered distinct for administrative purposes, little data is available about its current economy. This is the reason the article focuses chiefly on history and culture. The section has everything that we could find on economy of the region. Having said this, I'll definitely try to find more stuff that can be included. deeptrivia (talk) 14:56, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I've also expanded the section now, taking information from official district websites. deeptrivia (talk) 15:39, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I understand, I've changed my vote to Weak Support. - Cuivienen 15:01, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support - Rama's Arrow 17:26, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support. Very good work. — Wackymacs 20:59, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
• Comment. It looks really well written, but nowhere in the article is it made clear why this region is worthy of being discussed as a unit of its own. It's a part of two different states, and the lead lists the districts of each that it contains, but the article nowhere gives a clear and concise reason why it is considered a region and by whom. The lead should definitely have that. Is it important historically as a region, is it primarily geographic because of the plateau mentioned or what? If it is just because of the plateau, is the area exactly contiguous with it, and if not, why? - Taxman ^Talk 21:12, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Good observation. I've put some material in the lead clarifying this. Malwa was a political entity as late as 1947, although the region is still sometimes talked about as a unit by politicians and political analysts, when they discuss their vote banks (e.g., [1]) Some census data, like this one are also issued based on this classification. In history, of course, it is always mentioned as distinct. The plateau which forms a large part of area of Malwa is named after the region, although the two do not exactly coincide. The people consider themselves as distinct because of their language and culture, and there has also been a demand for a separate state. ([2]). Hopefully this helps. Thanks! deeptrivia (talk) 22:04, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

PS: The plateau and the region itself extends to some part in SE Rajasthan, while the present administrative border between the states is inherited from the border between the British Rajputana Agency and British Malwa Agency, which were fixed by political (as opposed to geographical or cultural) reasons. deeptrivia (talk) 22:14, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Ok, that explanation helps and that point is clear now, but now the lead feels poorly balanced. It really needs to be an overview of the whole article, but currently it only summarizes a few of the most important topics. It should cover them all in relation to their importance, and still be 3-4 cohesive paragraphs. Also the article now has some short paragraphs that should either be expanded into a full idea or merged with related material. Finally there are some html comment notes that show the need for a bit more research on points in the lead. - Taxman ^Talk 14:16, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

I've now added more relevant info from Culture, Economics, Demographics and Tourism sections. Hope that balances it a bit. Currently looking to merge short paragraphs. deeptrivia (talk) 14:45, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

Ok, looking really good. There's just the ecology material at the end of the geography section that needs to be turned into proper prose. I'll Support when that's done. - Taxman ^Talk 14:34, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

I've changed it into prose. See if it looks fine. Thanks! deeptrivia (talk) 14:50, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

• Provisional support—the prose needs improvements here and there. Apart from that, it's excellent. Tony 03:30, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support. Well-written. utcursch | talk 05:03, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support. Now these are the types of articles I like - comprehensive, a nice variety of visually-balanced pictures, etc. Just one thing that visually seems a bit off - the References section maybe shouldn't be in such small text, considering that it's not that long. Ronline ✉ 07:24, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

I've increased the font size of references to 100%. Thanks! deeptrivia (talk) 14:12, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support Skimmed through it. Good pics and info. Covers everything in good detail. DaGizza ^{Chat (c)} 08:12, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support. Could still need some improvements, but all in all it is a very good article. --Kefalonia 13:47, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support - It was a record! Less than 500 edits! If you compare July 20th, 2004, through May 9th, 2005 with December 21st, 2005, you'd agree. Cheers -- Svest 01:19, 22 December 2005 (UTC)  ^{Wiki me up™}
• Support. Most of the issues appear to have been addressed. Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 18:58, 27 December 2005 (UTC)
• I've copy-edited the article; please address my numerous inline queries, particularly in the last few sections. In addition, there's a lot of italic; you might consider rationing it. Tony 04:09, 23 December 2005 (UTC) PS The paragraph on music: no instruments mentioned; you talk of the modes, but is the drone always used in these forms, as in traditional Indian music? Please make the traditional/pop distinction clearer; it's unclear whether some of the forms you mention have been influenced by Western pop. Tony 04:11, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Thanks Tony! I've made many changes according to your suggestions. Some questions are answered inline. There are no special musical instruments typical of the region, so nothing is mentioned about it. In Lavani, drone is used. Thanks! deeptrivia (talk) 16:20, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support. Finally, an India-related article at FAC!! --Pamri • Talk 15:27, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

• Support: A nice creation indeed! --Bhadani 16:31, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support. Well sourced. Very nice. Saravask 17:40, 24 December 2005 (UTC)
• Support per the many reasons above.--May the Force be with you! Shreshth91($ |-| r 3 $ |-| t |-|) 14:18, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
• Strong support though it would be a great addition to have the current political map of India with the Malwa region marked clearly - it could serve as the lead image. Great work by deeptrivia. --Gurubrahma 16:16, 27 December 2005 (UTC)