Arbitration​Committee

Arbitration Committee

This page documents and supplementsdecisions of the Arbitration Committee concerning acontentious topic.

Shortcut WP:CT/SAWP:CT/SA

The Arbitration Committee hasenacted remedies that apply to all editors who make edits related tothe region ofSouth 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"). Thecontentious topics procedure applies to all pages and edits related to this contentious topic.

Last modified 18 July 2025

1c) South Asia designated as a contentious topic

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

  All pages related to the region ofSouth 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 forSri Lanka (SL) andIndia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (IPA) are folded into this new contentious topic.
• The community-authorized general sanctions regardingSouth Asian social groups (GS/CASTE) are rescinded and folded into this new contentious topic.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 asWikipedia:Contentious topics § Appeals and amendments. Users appealing such a legacy sanction should list "GS/CASTE" as the mechanism they were sanctioned under.
• Editorsaware 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 issuelogged 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)

Last modified 18 July 2025

6b) A consensus of admins atWP:AE may extendWP:ECR to subtopics ofWP: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)

Last modified 18 July 2025

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

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

Last modified 18 July 2025

3)WP:GSCASTE^[a] is placed under theextended-confirmed restriction.

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

Last modified 18 July 2025

5) Administrators are permitted to preemptively protect articles covered byWP:GSCASTE^[a] 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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Inthis August 2025 ARCA request regarding the scope of "Indian military history", arbitrators reached aconsensus that Tamzin's explanation is spot on, referring to a description posted byTamzin, 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.

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

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

When a page has active page restrictions (other than page protection), the following templatemust 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 ofIndian military history
• {{Contentious topics/talk notice|sasg}} – to indicate that the subject falls under the subtopic ofsocial groups, explicitly including caste associations and political parties, related to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal

• Contentious topic summary pages