Talk:Biswas

Does anyone know the origins of this surname?
 * I don't read or speak Bengali, but when I plug the Bengali spelling of the surname into various translation tools, "trust" and "belief" tend to come up a lot. In fact, there's an article for the word in Bengali Wikipedia that's cross-referenced with English Wikipedia Belief.
 * My (slightly) educated guess is that it probably came from something like "true" or "trustworthy" as a description of the character of someone given the name, though I don't know if they have anything equivalent to English names like Faith and Prudence that derive from abstract nouns. Chuck Entz (talk) 00:38, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 22 November 2014

 * Jayant Biswas, (born 1964), cave scientist and environmentalist from India

Dimpionly (talk) 16:55, 22 November 2014 (UTC)
 * as there is currently no full article about this person. Per WP:APOENTRIES, lists of people in surname articles should only include those who are WP:NOTABLE enough to be the subject of a full and sourced article. --McGeddon (talk) 17:07, 22 November 2014 (UTC)

Don't you think the referred page is sufficient to consider his name as notable figure?
 * Jayant Biswas, (born 1964), cave scientist and environmentalist from India

— Preceding unsigned comment added by Dimpionly (talk • contribs) 17:56, 29 November 2014‎
 * If the person has no Wikipedia article, then no, they are not considered WP:NOTABLE. If they are an important enough figure to merit an article, that article should be written before adding them to "notable people" lists. --McGeddon (talk) 18:51, 29 November 2014 (UTC)

Disputing the Content Presented by Ekdalian on Biswas Family Name
I would like to bring to your attention two major concerns regarding Ekdalian's recent edit – it seems to me there's a mixing of apples and oranges. The inclusion of Mahishya and Kayasthas with the Schedule Caste category appears inaccurate. The term "Schedule Caste" was instituted based on Independent India's constitution in 1947, whereas Mahishya and Kayasthas have historical roots dating back to at least the 12th century. The "Schedule Caste" encompasses many castes. To be factually correct, if you intend to refer to Schedule Caste, it would be more appropriate to mention General Caste and Other Backward Castes (Not Mahishya and Kayasthas etc) like the way the Government of India classifies castes of its citizens. It's also worth noting that there are individuals with the last name Biswas among Brahmins and Baidya community. These people fall under the General category.

My second objection concerns the ordering of the castes associated with Biswas family name. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate any caste-vs-last-name survey to justify the arrangement that Ekdalian introduced. A natural choice may be arranging based on percentages of people with Biswas family name in each caste category. In absence of any survey you can check publicly available admission lists at Universities in West Bengal like Jadavpur University, Kolkata University, and Medical colleges to get a sense about the caste of the people with family name Biswas. These lists categories candidates in mainly four categories based on caste - General category, Schedule caste, Schedule Tribes and Other Backward Castes. These lists suggest that individuals with a General Caste affiliation make up a significant majority among students with the Biswas family name. According to these lists, approximately 60-70% of individuals with the last name Biswas belong to the General category. Note I understand these are not correct sampling techniques. I have a feeling the percentage of people with Biswas family name is more than the above mentioned percentages in the General category. Here is my hypothesis: As Biswas is an honorary title (bestowed by rulers), they are privileged (and should be fewer) to start with. Among Scheduled Castes and OBCs, they belong to the highly privileged category. That's why their representation is overwhelmingly larger at reputable universities among Scheduled Castes and OBCs. But in the general category, they are not that privileged as most people in the general category are privileged. So people with Biswas family name are relatively fewer in numbers in the general category at these reputable universities.

Now the question is, why is Ekdalian starting with Schedule Caste to list various castes associated with Biswas family name? Either you arrange the list based on alphabetical order or percentages of each category.

I appreciate your attention to these concerns and would be open to further discussion to ensure the accuracy and clarity of the information presented.

SenBiswas (talk) 19:11, 25 November 2023 (UTC)


 * Hey, please note that I didn't introduce/add the disputed part, but the last version represented the last consensus (implicit) version since there was no objection! Now, the same has been modified! Ekdalian (talk) 08:37, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

Biswas surname related
Hi Ekdalian, I don't know if you had a chance to download the paper by Mookerjee S (1959), titled 'Bengalee Surnames' (PDF), from the link provided on Wikipedia to verify my edits. I am providing another link for verification: https://www.scribd.com/document/391633814/NAME-LIST. On page 82 of this paper, there is a paragraph about 'Biswas'. I quoted from that paragraph in my edit ("it is used by both "Hindus, including Brhamins, and Muslims alike".)

User talk:SenBiswas