Talk:List of cities in India by population

message: This article has been semi-protected since March 2014, but the article has turned into a train wreck despite that. The article states that population data is from the 2001 Census of India and the 2011 Census of India. Unfortunately, the population data has been relentlessly modified using a combination of unsourced, poorly-sourced, and incorrect numbers.
I ended up restoring an intermediate version of the city list from the article history and I am now working my way through the list so the numbers match the 2011 census data.
Mistakes in the table seem to be coming from a variety of sources including:
* Some 2001 population numbers are from the 2001 census while others come from the 2011 census which takes into account city boundary changes. For example, Bangalore increased in size. Consistently using the 2011 census seems like the way to go because it allows for meaningful comparisons between the 2001 and 2011 numbers. Otherwise, it would look like some cities experienced unrealistic population growth.
* Some population numbers have been for the U.A. rather than municipal corporation. This article does not list U.A. sizes.
* Some population numbers are from provisional 2011 census results. There's a PDF of the provisional results used by many articles. These need to be replaced with the final 2011 numbers.
* Some population numbers have been updated to include additional areas merged into a city. Coimbatore is one example. I think this is bordering on WP:SYNTH in the absence of official totals. I think it's best to add a footnote for these cases and wait for the 2021 census to be completed, but if there's a reliable source with both 2001 and 2011 numbers for a resized city, we could consider it.
* And some seem to be more recent estimates. If we can find a reliable and authoritative estimation for city sizes, I think we should discuss adding a new column, but I would like to finish fixing the table first.
Daniel Quinlan (talk) 03:29, 5 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: @Daniel Quinlan apparently I'm not able to edit this page anymore, but you forgot to change the numbering in your last edit. Ennomien (talk) 07:43, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
replies: text:  Updated. Thank you. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 18:23, 6 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unsourced and poorly-sourced population changes 

message: Please check the population of Patna is 5,838,465 as per https://patna.nic.in/.   — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.219.164.105 (talk) 11:15, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: This article is based on official census data, not periodic updates from other sources. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 21:01, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Patna 

message: Names of many cities need to be updated to their new ones, like:
Bangalore to Bengaluru,
Aurangabad to Sambhaji Nagar,
Allahabad to Prayagraj,
Mysore to Mysuru, etc. 2409:408C:8E16:D6BE:0:0:6EC9:9009 (talk) 08:18, 22 December 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: . We use the "Common names" in English for our articles, not the "Official names" - Arjayay (talk) 12:08, 22 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Change old city names to their new official names 

message: Maharaj-e-hind (talk) 18:02, 31 March 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: . That would be an inappropriate change for several reasons. First, Wikipedia is not a reliable source. Second, this article is based on the official census data, not other sources. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 12:41, 1 April 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 31 March 2024