Talk:Eshwari Bai

Eshwaribai name controversy

Sitush Jetti Eshwaribai, who belonged to the then Andhra Pradesh, now Telangana, was a Telugu Dalit leader. Most of her references are in Telugu news papers and those should be considered while writing about her. All the Telugu news papers refer to her name as ఈశ్వరీబాయి. The English media has certainly played a big role in changing her name to Eshwari Bai which is unacceptable.

There is no context in the Indian history where bai is used as a last name of a female member. It is used as a suffix generally connecting to their first name. One can find the pattern of the usage of 'bai' here in these articles Lakshmibai, Savitribai Phule, Pandita Ramabai, Jhalkaribai, Muktabai, Shantabai Kamble, Radhabai Subbarayan, Kashibai, Amirbai Karnataki, Tarabai Bhosale, Jijabai Shahaji Bhosale just to name a few. If these are not sufficient we can bring in more references. What will be more advisable in this scenario is to consult experts who are much grounded in the subject. We need to reach a consent before anymore reverts. Hemalataeditor (talk) 08:48, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

I would scarcely call it a "controversy". Furthermore, it is English-language sources that count: transliterating from native Indic scripts produces notoriously variable results. As for the last name thing, yes, Indian usage is relevant but for all your cherry-picked examples, I could find ten times as many that are otherwise. However, other stuff exists and it really doesn't matter that much. This is the English-language version of Wikipedia and we're catering for readers of that language. - Sitush (talk) 09:06, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

References