Deoband Community Wikimedia/Events/Bhopal Photo Event 2022

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Bhopal Photo Event was a photographic event that happened between 15 and 20 October 2022, in Bhopal, the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and 131st largest city in the world. The event aimed to collect images from the city associated with the theme of DCW. This event was proposed and approved during the June 2022 Meetup in Deoband.

Justifications

Bhopal has had a nice history with the global Deobandi scholarship. According to author, Seema Alavi, "Most qaris in Lucknow, Bhopal, Deoband, Multan, and other parts of India that are today known for this talent owe their training to Kairanwi's madrasa." Kairanwi was a prominent Deobandi scholar and his Madrasa Saultiyah remains one of the prominent Deobandi institutions of our time. One Jamaluddin, who had served as the prime minister of the Bhopal State, was a pupil of Mamluk Ali Nanautawi. A number of institutes related to our theme are located in the city of Bhopal, thus allowing us to cover this gap as well.

Target and outcome

DCW's Bhopal Photo Event had a target of collecting over 200 freely licensed images related to its theme. The photos would subsequently be used on related articles and wherever articles don't exist, new articles would be created. A number of notable thematic institutions from Bhopal are underrepresented and they need to be represented through the concept of free knowledge. The event aimed to join about 30 volunteer editors from the city as well. A few little workshops would be initiated throughout the event to train newcomers. The images collected were categorized to DCW Bhopal Photo Event 2022 and the metrics were be measured through Event Metrics.

The event was successful in achieving its target around images as the collection of images went to 346. However, we did face certain difficulties while trying to get the images of some female Islamic seminaries. The photo event was locally seen as a nice step but there existed a lack of understanding to an higher extent related to free knowledge movement, subject to which we were not able to do anything good on training newcomers. Some people were keen to support the DCW in its future endeavors.

Participants

Budget

The estimated budget of this event is 980 USD, which has been approved by the South Asian GRC on 6 August 2022.