Wikidata:Country subdivision task force/India

This is a portal for coordinating efforts to improve the condition of various administrative division items for India.

Administrative

Some notes common to all administrative division levels:

Only list the most immediate levels for located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) or contains the administrative territorial entity (P150). In other words, for example, do not list the state and the district as values for located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) on a subdistrict: the district (or the subdivision, for those states with such a level) suffices.
Every state, district, subdistrict, and village/municipality/census town must have census codes on it, referenced to a district census handbook (preferably) or an administrative atlas, using Indian census area code (2001) (P3213) or Indian census area code (2011) (P5578) depending on the specific census from which the code originates. (More properties will be proposed as more data may be found on these codes.)

States and territories

This is a list of properties which conceivably could apply to various states. Some properties which you may think of, or which are presently on some state items but not others, may not be present here; bring them up on the talk page if you think you might want to use them.

Note that if you can add references to anything listed here, state government references very strongly preferred', please do so. (More on references to be added later.)

The following properties ought to be present on each state item, though of course for some states some of the properties may not apply:

instance of (P31) (instance of) Should be either state of India (Q13390680) or union territory of India (Q467745) as appropriate.
inception (P571) (inception) This, in theory, should not precede 26 January 1950.
dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (dissolved, abolished or demolished) Only for those states which no longer exist; do not add this property with "no value" or "unknown value" to states which still exist.
official language (P37) (official language) This should be just the official language of the state: in other words, do not include Hindi and English, the working languages of the central government, unless those have been specifically designated as official by the government of that state at some point.
native label (P1705) (native label) Should be the name of the state in each of the languages listed with P37.
anthem (P85) (anthem) Please add references from government websites to all such statements using this property.
country (P17) (country) Of course this should be India (Q668).
capital (P36) (capital) Use qualifiers start time (P580) and end time (P582), as appropriate, if a particular city is no longer the capital or if a city was not the capital at the time of the state's creation.
located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) (located in the administrative territorial entity) This should always be India (Q668). (While there are Zonal Councils established by the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (Q2305282), and while there are items for "regions" of India, the former set do not include Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, and the latter set are unofficial or quasi-official.)
office held by head of government (P1313) (office held by head of government) Should be an item of the form "Chief Minister of {state name}". Do not link to an item of the form 'List of Chief Ministers of {state name}' or any other list article.
head of government (P6) (head of government) Should be the item about the current Chief Minister, with a start time (P580) qualifier.
executive body (P208) (executive body) Should be an item of the form "Council of Ministers of {state name}".
legislative body (P194) (legislative body) For those states with Vidhan Parishads, this should be an item for the state's legislature. For those states without Vidhan Parishads, this should be an item for the state's Vidhan Sabha.
contains the administrative territorial entity (P150) (contains administrative territorial entity) For those states with a division level, the divisions should be the objects of this property. For those without a division level, the districts should be the objects of this property.
area (P2046) (area) If the geographical extent of the state has not changed since its creation, you may be able to get away with using one value without point in time (P585) qualifiers. If there has ever been a change, it should be reflected with multiple values each with a point in time (P585) qualifier.
highest point (P610) and lowest point (P1589) (highest/lowest point) See those properties for more information about them.
shares border with (P47) (shares border with) List every Indian state, every Bangladeshi division, every Pakistani province, every Nepali province, every Bhutanese dzongkhag, and every Burmese state that borders it--no divisions above them or below them in level. (This includes those parts of India, Pakistan and Myanmar on the same level as states, provinces and states respectively.)
official website (P856) (official website) This should be the website for the government of that state--not any website intended to tourism.
locator map image (P242) (locator map image) Often confused with the property below: this should show all of India, preferably with the borders between states showing, and specifically highlighting the state in question. See c:Category:Locator maps to learn more.
location map (P1943) (location map image) Often confused with the property above: this should show the entire state, preferably with the borders of districts showing, and highlighting nothing in particular. See c:Category:Location maps to learn more.
official symbol (P2238) (official symbol) As with P85, please add references from government websites to all such statements using this property; an unreferenced list of 'official symbols' could get out of hand. See Property talk:P2238 for more details on object of statement has role (P3831) qualifiers.
page banner (P948) (Wikivoyage banner) This should be unique to each state; by virtue of being a 'banner', this should be much wider than it is tall.
list of monuments (P1456) (list of monuments) Should be a link to a "list of Monuments of National Importance in {state name}".
Commons gallery (P935) (Commons gallery) If there is a page about the state on Commons (i.e. not a category), then the name of that page should be the value for this property.
Commons category (P373) (Commons category) Should be the name of the category about this state, without the prefix "Category:".
topic's main Wikimedia portal (P1151) (topic's main Wikimedia portal) If there is a page in the "Portal:" namespace on some wiki about the state, then that item should be the value for this property.
topic's main category (P910) (topic's main category) If there is a page in the "Category:" namespace on some wiki about the state, then that item should be the value for this property.
category of associated people (P1792), category for people born here (P1464), category for people who died here (P1465), category for people buried here (P1791), category for films shot at this location (P1740): If there are categories about "people from", "people born in", "people who died in", "people buried in", and "films shot in" the state, they should be added using each of these properties. (Note that the "people from" and "people born in" categories should be distinct, and same with the "people who died in" and "people buried in" categories.)
geography of topic (P2633), history of topic (P2184), Wikimedia outline (P5125): If there are distinct pages about the "geography of", "history of", or "outline of" the state, they should be added using each of these properties.
Indian census area code (2001) (P3213), Indian census area code (2011) (P5578): The state codes for the 2001 and 2011 censuses should be two digits long.

Some notes about certain properties, whose use is not outright discouraged:

image (P18) (image) It is much more preferable to use a montage or collage image with montage image (P2716), but this property may be used if such a collage does not exist for a given state.
population (P1082) (population) If you are able to find more than 10 population figures for a state over time, create a tabular data page, link to that with tabular population (P4179), and use P1082 on the state item with only the most recent of those figures.

You may be tempted to add the following properties, but here are some notes about them:

continent (P30) (continent) This should only be present on country items, as well as those items located in countries on more than one continent to specify which continent they're on--neither of which is a situation applicable to Indian states.
coordinate location (P625) (coordinate location) Replace it with a combination of coordinates of northernmost point (P1332), coordinates of southernmost point (P1333), coordinates of easternmost point (P1334), coordinates of westernmost point (P1335), and coordinates of geographic center (P5140) (see instructions on how to use the last of these properties on the property itself).

If you are interested in using the following properties, ask the following people about how best to use them:

weather history (P4150) (weather history) User:Pasleim (the property's proposer)

Divisions

If a state has "divisions" (i.e. a level lower than the state level but higher than the district level), those should be the subjects of contains the administrative territorial entity (P150) for states and territories and of located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) for districts.
- e.g. West Bengal (Q1356) has five divisions (Burdwan division, Jalpaiguri division, Malda division, Medinipur division and Presidency division), and a district such as Howrah district (Q1478937) is noted as being in Presidency division.
Every division should be instance of (P31) division in India (Q1230708) (or a subclass of that item, should it exist) with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the division did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the division does not presently exist).
Divisions generally do not have census codes.

Districts

Every district should be instance of (P31) district of India (Q1149652) (or a subclass of that item, should it exist) with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the district did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the district does not presently exist).
A district's census code for the 2011 census is a unique three-digit code. Because this was not the case for censuses prior to 2011, the state code and a dot must precede the district code for pre-2011 censuses.
- e.g. Aurangabad district (Q43086) has a 2011 census code of 235 and a 2001 census code of 10.34, where "10" is Bihar's 2001 census code.

Subdivisions

Similarly to the way "divisions" are handled, if a state has "subdivisions" (i.e. a level lower than the district level but higher than the subdistrict level), those should be the subjects of contains the administrative territorial entity (P150) for districts and of located in the administrative territorial entity (P131) for subdistricts.
- e.g. Cooch Behar district (Q2728658) has five subdivisions (Cooch Behar Sadar subdivision, Dinhata subdivision, Mathabhanga subdivision, Tufanganj subdivision and Mekhliganj subdivision), and a subdistrict such as Dinhata II community development block (Q5278312) is noted as being in Dinhata subdivision.
Every subdivision should be instance of (P31) subdivision of India (Q7631016) (or a subclass of that item, should it exist) with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the subdivision did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the subdivision does not presently exist).
Subdivisions generally do not have census codes.

Subdistricts

Every subdistrict should have a instance of (P31) value of either tehsil of India (Q7694920) or community development block in India (Q2775236), depending on the state, with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the subdistrict did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the subdistrict does not presently exist).
A subdistrict's census code for the 2011 census is a unique five-digit code. Because this was not the case for censuses prior to 2011, the district code and a dot must precede the subdistrict code for pre-2011 censuses.
- Note that for some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, there is a network of development blocks ('vikas khand') separate from the network of subdistricts ('tehsil'), while for other states, such as West Bengal, the development block and the subdistrict are coterminous. The 2011 census gives codes for both development blocks and subdistricts; instructions for handling those are given on the respective property's talk page.
- e.g. Araria Block (Q12414138) has a 2011 census code of 01116 and a 2001 census code of 10.07.0005, where "10.07" is Araria district's 2001 census code.

Villages et al.

Every entity at this level should have a instance of (P31) value of either village in India (Q56436498), census town of India (Q16830604), notified area (Q4464237), or something else depending on the specific entity at hand, with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the entity did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the entity does not presently exist).
The census code for such an entity for the 2011 census is a unique six-digit code. Because this was not the case for censuses prior to 2011, the subdistrict code and a dot must precede the entity's code for pre-2011 censuses.
- e.g. Chanderdai (Q12425502) has a 2011 census code of 221865 and a 2001 census code of 10.07.0005.00589500, where "10.07.0005" is Araria C.D. Block's 2001 census code.

Local Government

As of 2017, there are a total of 267,428 local government bodies, of which 262,771 are rural and 4,657 urban. Local government in India

Panchayats

Every panchayat should have a instance of (P31) value of Gram panchayat (Q2732840), with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the panchayat did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the panchayat does not presently exist).
Panchayats generally do not have census codes.

Municipality

Every panchayat should have a instance of (P31) value of municipal council of India (Q6958514), with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the Municipality did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the Municipality does not presently exist).

Municipal Corporation

Every panchayat should have a instance of (P31) value of Municipal Corporation (India) (Q6936225), with appropriate values for inception (P571) (if the Municipal Corporation did not exist at the time of the state's establishment) and dissolved, abolished or demolished date (P576) (if the Municipal Corporation does not presently exist).

List of municipal corporations in India

Political

Lok Sabha

Lok Sabha constituencies

Vidhan Sabha

Resources

Some resources on Indian administrative divisions include the following:

The main Indian Census website has every District Census Handbook for the 2011 census. (Even if you find 2011 census codes using one of the links below, if you intend to add the codes on Wikidata using P5578, please add the appropriate District Census Handbook as a reference for the claim!)
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation's National Rural Drinking Water Programme website also lists gram panchayats, which are generally not listed in census documents.
The Census Digital Library has an assortment of volumes, rather incomplete in some areas, dating as far back as the British era.
The Local Government Directory is one source of 2011 village codes.
The Direct Benefit Transfer website, run by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, is another source of 2011 village codes.