Wikipedia:Contentious topics/South Asia

Arbitration​Committee

The Arbitration Committee has enacted remedies that apply to all editors who make edits related to the region of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal), broadly construed, including but not limited to history, politics, ethnicity, and social groups (the "contentious topic"). The contentious topics procedure applies to all pages and edits related to this contentious topic.

Arbitration Committee decisions

Contentious topics

Last modified 18 July 2025

1c) South Asia designated as a contentious topic

• South Asia (WP:CT/SA) is designated a contentious topic. The topic area is specifically defined as

  All pages related to the region of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal), broadly construed, including but not limited to history, politics, ethnicity, and social groups.

• The contentious topic designations for Sri Lanka (SL) and India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (IPA) are folded into this new contentious topic.
• The community-authorized general sanctions regarding South Asian social groups (GS/CASTE) are rescinded and folded into this new contentious topic.
• All sanctions previously imposed under SL, IPA, and GS/CASTE remain in force. In place of the original appeals rules for GS/CASTE, they may be modified or appealed under the same terms as Wikipedia:Contentious topics § Appeals and amendments. Users appealing such a legacy sanction should list "GS/CASTE" as the mechanism they were sanctioned under.
• Editors aware of the previous contentious topic or general sanction designations are not automatically presumed to be aware of the expanded scope, but may still be sanctioned within a subtopic of which they were previously considered aware. This does not invalidate any other reason why an editor might be aware of the expanded scope. Administrators are reminded that they may issue logged warnings even to unaware editors.
• Given the broad scope of this contentious topic designation, admins are encouraged to use targeted sanctions, such as topic bans from specific subtopics, before banning an editor from the area entirely.

Passed 7 to 5 at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Extension of extended-confirmed restriction (limited duration)

Last modified 18 July 2025

6b) A consensus of admins at WP:AE may extend WP:ECR to subtopics of WP:ARBIPA if such a sanction is necessary to prevent disruption. Such extensions must be of a limited duration, not to exceed one year.

Passed 8 to 3 at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Subtopic of Indian military history

Indian military history extended-confirmed restriction

Last modified 18 July 2025

2) The topic of Indian military history is placed under the extended-confirmed restriction.

Passed 10 to 0 at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Subtopic of South Asian social groups

GSCASTE extended-confirmed restriction

Last modified 18 July 2025

3) WP:GSCASTE is placed under the extended-confirmed restriction.

Passed 10 to 0 at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Preemptive protection GSCASTE

Last modified 18 July 2025

5) Administrators are permitted to preemptively protect articles covered by WP:GSCASTE when there is a reasonable belief that they will be the target of disruption.

Passed 6 to 5 at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Notes

Guidance for administrators

ARBIPA available sanctions

9) Uninvolved administrators are encouraged to monitor the articles covered by contentious topic designation in the original India-Pakistan case to ensure compliance. To assist in this, administrators are reminded that:

1. Accounts with a clear shared agenda may be blocked if they violate the sockpuppetry policy or any other applicable policy;
2. Accounts whose primary purpose is disruption, violating the policy on biographies of living persons, or making personal attacks may be blocked indefinitely;
3. There are special provisions in place to deal with editors who violate the BLP policy;
4. Administrators may act on clear BLP violations with page protections, blocks, or warnings even if they have edited the article themselves or are otherwise involved;
5. The contentious topics procedure permits full and semi-page protections, including use of pending changes where warranted, and – once an editor has become aware of the contentious topic designation – any other appropriate remedy may be issued without further warning.

Passed 7 to 0 with 3 abstentions at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Breadth of topic bans

24) Administrators are reminded that, when possible, topic bans should only be as broad as necessary to stop disruption. Some possible subtopics related to WP:ARBIPA are:

1. Specific time periods in Indian history, such as before or after the establishment of the British Raj or before or after the foundation of the Republic of India
2. Human activity in India
3. Indian entertainment, generally or in a specific language
4. Indian political, ethnic, religious, and caste topics
5. Hindu nationalism and opposition thereto
6. India–Pakistan relations
7. Indian WP:BLPs or biographies

Passed 8 to 3 at 00:48, 18 July 2025 (UTC)

Standard set of restrictions

Any uninvolved administrator may impose the standard set of restrictions in this topic area for up to one year:

Individual restrictions

• sitewide and partial blocks,
• topic bans and page bans (from the entire contentious topic, a subtopic, or specified pages within the topic),
• interaction bans,
• revert restrictions,
• word limits per discussion

Page restrictions

• page protection,
• revert restrictions,
• the "consensus required" restriction,
• the "enforced BRD" restriction,
• word limits for all participants in a specific discussion

Clarifications and amendments

• In this August 2025 ARCA request regarding the scope of "Indian military history", arbitrators reached a consensus that Tamzin's explanation is spot on, referring to a description posted by Tamzin, which read as follows:

  To me, the logical scope of "Indian military history" would be

  1. The military history of any entity, or vassal/proxy of an entity, based in
     1. the present-day Republic of India and/or
     2. territory that was at the time considered India
     and/or
  2. Any military activities by any other entity that took place in that region.

Templates

When alerting an editor who has never received an alert for any contentious topic, the following template must be used to alert them:

• {{subst:Contentious topics/alert/first|sa}}

When a page has active page restrictions (other than page protection), the following template must be used as an editnotice:

• {{Contentious topics/page restriction editnotice|sa}}

The following templates may be used in this contentious topic:

Alerting editors after their first alert

• {{subst:Contentious topics/alert|sa}}
• {{subst:Contentious topics/alert/DS|sa}}

No page restrictions editnotice

• {{Contentious topics/editnotice|sa}}

Talk page notice

• {{Contentious topics/talk notice|sa}}
• {{Contentious topics/talk notice|imh}} – to indicate that the subject falls under the subtopic of Indian military history
• {{Contentious topics/talk notice|sasg}} – to indicate that the subject falls under the subtopic of social groups, explicitly including caste associations and political parties, related to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal