Shiyali Ramamrita Ranganathan

Say that three times fast! :)

Having lived where Ranganathan lived, I can see why a faceted classification system (his Five Laws and Colon Classification) made more sense to him than a hierarchical one. India runs on a faceted system, which boggles the hierarchical Western mind, and allows seemingly impossible contradictions to flourish. For example, because cows are sacred, they roam freely and are never killed for meat. Accidentally running into a cow with a car is the equivalent of running into a person, with the same results - a savage beating of the driver of the vehicle, and a large fine. The flip side of this is that often the cows are not fed (ownership is a little iffy, too); they often starve to death, or die of intestinal blockage due to eating the ubiquitous plastic bags that litter every square inch of the country. The linear correlation between "sacred" and "taken care of" is not present in India.

Even the caste system is not a strict hierarchical system, as a Westerner would assume. From what I studied and observed, the caste system does not infer hierarchical authority of one group over another. It is not based on any obvious external reference points, such as gender, skin color, wealth, or amount of education. It is based on occupation and straight genetics. A Brahmin may be dirt poor and have no education, but he is still a Brahmin, and will only perform the job that his Brahmin father did; he will also only marry a Brahmin girl, of his particular Brahmin sub-caste. An untouchable is an untouchable, no matter what level of education or amount of money they may have. Nothing can change one's caste; it is an inherent facet of one's very being.

The caste system is very much alive and well in India; it's mentioned regularly in news articles (usually political in nature); advertised freely in marital want ads; and obviously, often dictates one's profession. In traditional southern India, where we lived, adoption was frowned upon (indeed, nearly impossible to accomplish), because one might accidentally adopt an orphan who was not of one's caste. Although the system is legally outlawed, it is still mandatory that children put what caste they are on their entry forms for school, and later, on employment forms. Every single day I ran into caste issues - a gardener, for instance, who would not empty the trash because he was a gardener - no matter that I paid his wages and was his manager. My driver would iron my clothes but never cook. My foster daughter, Tamil by genetics and of a lower caste, was educated at one of the best schools in the city, but could not openly date anyone, because of her caste. It was all very frustrating to me, a Westerner, because not only am I strongly morally opposed to the idea that one person is better than another, but it is not based on linear thinking. It is based on a faceted way of thinking - each little gem (caste) touching other gems, on multiple sides, but never overlapping.

So, Ranganathan grew up within a system that classifies people in a faceted manner. It makes perfect sense that he transferred that to books and other information sources, and in some ways, it was an improvement upon hierarchical classification, since books are not living beings that have feelings, or can progress educationally. They are static.

The five points of his colon classification system - Personality, Property, Energy, Space, and Time - are indeed a bit mystic. Again, this is not surprising to me (nor is the fact that he married an 11-year-old - I hope she survived the consummation of their union). With respect, there is a great deal of what a North American would label as superstition in the Indian culture, even amongst well-educated Indians. Names should have a certain number of letters (hence the length); astrologers are often consulted to determine if the two individuals in an arranged marriage are compatible; old shoes are tied to trees so that ghosts have somewhere to stand and will stay out of one's house. (And woe betide the homemaker who removes said shoes because she thinks they look trashy.....) So, I can certainly see where Ranganathan was influenced by this when he decided upon his classification categories.

What really interests me is how his system became so well known. I am very curious to read more about the history of this, and how it is used in today's libraries (if, indeed, it is used).


I leave you with a few fascinating trivia about the caste system:

1. The untouchable caste (those who do the dirtiest jobs, like corpse removal) are currently called Dalits, or Scheduled Castes, and if you are in this group, you get the equivalent of U.S. Affirmative Action. Hence, some scam artists register their children as part of this group, in order to take advantage of the benefits (not many though, because the benefits were not that great).
2. All races outside of the Indian genetic pool are outside the caste system. If one wishes to convert to Hinduism, well, I have no idea what your caste options might be.
3. Several times large, organized groups of Dalits converted, en masse, to Buddhism, to reject the cast system. This was seen as a political movement by some. Recently, the reverse has happened: large groups of Dalits converted back to Hinduism.
4. Dalits are also called the Otherwise Backward Caste, or OBC, a nomenclature often used in the news. This usage of the term "backward" was so hard to get my mind wrapped around that I once asked a dear Indian friend if there was a Forward Caste. There is.
5. Hitler borrowed his infamous Swastika symbol from the Hindu religion. In India, the swastika is an extremely ancient sacred symbol, with absolutely no connotation of genocide. Obviously as a westerner, it has very negative connotations to me, and I had a hard time getting used to seeing it painted on cars, buildings, etc. I thought I was doing good until a henna artist drew it on my son's arm; that was too much for me, and he agreed to transform it into a flaming sword.