“Every article on Wikipedia is against the ruling party, and whitewashes the Indian National Congress,” she says, referencing the former ruling party which, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, led the country to independence in 1947. “There are even conspiracy theories that there is involvement by members of the Congress, as every article is in their favour,” she says.
Another editor, Raj Aryan, who edits under the username Factual Indian Hindu, says that “the page for Modi is full of criticism, while that for Rahul Gandhi is full of praise.”
“I don’t side with any party,” says Minisha, who identifies as anti-left. “This is not a liberal versus conservative debate. It’s about hatred and lies and propaganda,” she says. “Sometimes articles I follow will be changed within minutes. It makes me think this editing is funded effort by either communists or religious minorities.” The latter is a thinly-veiled euphemism for the country’s Muslim community, which makes about 15 per cent of the population and is being increasingly targeted by Modi’s right-wing government. The claims against Wikipedia show how facts are being weaponised as part of India’s political struggle.
Aryan runs FactualHindu, an Instagram account that flags examples of Wikipedia’s purported bias on social media. It’s not just articles about Modi and the BJP that editors like these see as skewed: recently, Aryan lambasted Wikipedia over an article about an early Indian nationalist leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, which the encyclopaedia had labeled a “radical”.
Such perceived slights seem to strike a chord with some Indian editors, who have now made it their mission to seek out instances of the alleged prejudice across Wikipedia. “Wikipedia pages are defaming the Indian culture and its roots,” Aryan says, claiming the Wikipedia page for Christianity and Islam were positive, while that for Hinduism was negative and stressed issues like casteism instead of the more progressives sides of the faith.
Allegations of political biases on the part of volunteer-run Wikipedia are common. The open encyclopaedia, now entering its twentieth year, has been accused of partiality by figures on both the left and the right of the political spectrum across the world with regularity.
This trend is worrying to another Indian editor called Subhashish who sees these campaigns as an attempt to tarnish Wikipedia. “The fact is that Wikipedia is not a singular body, but a collective and therefore has many many biases.” For him, the goal should be to fix these biases, rather than criticising the whole project. Instead, he says, “we are seeing political leaders accusing Wikipedia of spreading false information”.