What do Indians read on non-English Wikipedias?

The answer depends on the language: historical icons in Marathi; religion (Sikhism/Islam) in Punjabi & Urdu; literary icons in Odia, Tamil, Kannada; India's history & politics in Hindi; and sex & sex positions in Bhojpuri.

In my latest story for #PlainFacts, I explore India's diversity through Wikipedia trends after scanning 98,000 top articles for 14 Indian-language Wikis from Jan to Jul 2020.

Turns out that just about half of all their readership comes from India – many come from the West.

The 2nd most interesting trend I found (after Bhojpuri's singular focus on sexuality) was the spike for articles about Hindu mythology ( #Ramayana/ #Mahabharata) during lockdown. Possibly due to TV shows.

Pageviews for Islam-related topics rose in Apr-May (coincided with Ramzan).

Yet another fun discovery was the impact of an Urdu-dubbed 2014 Netflix Turkish series (Diriliş: Ertuğrul) that was telecast on Pakistan's state TV recently.

"History" became the second-most popular topic on Urdu Wikipedia – with thousands of reads for medieval Turkish kings.

Read on to discover more on how Wikipedia top articles seem to reflect the psyche of India's diverse cultures.

In print in today's Mint. https://www.livemint.com/news/india/shivaji-maharaj-top-page-on-marathi-wikipedia-guru-granth-sahib-on-punjabi-11597460003374.html