“‘Socialisation and social control are complementary to each other in maintaining social order.’ – Elucidate your answer with appropriate illustrations.” (2004)
Socialisation is the lifelong process through which individuals internalise the norms, values and roles of their society. Social control, a term given currency by Edward A. Ross (Social Control, 1901), refers to the formal and informal means by which a society secures conformity. The statement holds that order rests on both, working together: an inner control built through socialisation and an outer control applied through sanctions.
Socialisation as internalised control
- Émile Durkheim saw education as the “methodical socialisation of the young generation”. It makes the collective conscience part of the individual, so that moral rules are felt as duties.
- George Herbert Mead (Mind, Self and Society, 1934) showed that the self develops by taking the attitude of the generalized other. Self-control is therefore social control operating from within.
- Talcott Parsons (The Social System, 1951) held that when values are internalised, actors want to do what the system requires. Order then needs little force.
Social control as reinforcement
- Informal controls such as praise, ridicule, gossip and ostracism dominate primary groups. Formal controls such as law, police and courts dominate secondary groups.
- Sanctions are also teaching devices: punishment and reward are how a child learns norms. For Durkheim, punishment reaffirms shared sentiments for the law-abiding majority.
How the two complement each other
| Socialisation | Social control |
|---|---|
| Prevents deviance by building conscience | Corrects deviance that socialisation fails to prevent |
| Works mainly through family, school, peers and religion | Works through community, state, law and media |
| Makes sanctions legitimate and acceptable | Keeps learned norms credible through visible enforcement |
- Travis Hirschi (Causes of Delinquency, 1969) found that attachment, commitment, involvement and belief, all products of socialisation, bind people to conformity. Where these bonds weaken, external control has to do more.
- Norbert Elias (The Civilizing Process, 1939) traced how external constraints by courts and the state were gradually converted into self-restraint.
Indian illustrations
- Caste and gender norms are learnt in childhood and policed by kin and caste councils. The NFHS-5 (2019–21) found that 45% of women and 44% of men agreed a husband is justified in beating his wife in certain situations. Here control has been internalised by the controlled themselves.
- Road safety: stiffer penalties under the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 are paired with awareness campaigns meant to turn helmet and seat-belt use into habit. That pairs formal control with socialisation.
- Swachh Bharat combined community-led peer pressure against open defecation and incentives with behavioural messaging in schools.
A critical view
The complementarity is not automatic.
- Contradictory socialisation, such as delinquent subcultures (Albert K. Cohen) or inter-caste couples who defy khap diktats, can set socialisation against control. The Supreme Court in Shakti Vahini v. Union of India (2018) sided with individual choice against community control.
- Dennis Wrong (1961) warned against an “oversocialized” view of humans.
- Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault asked whose order is maintained. For them socialisation can itself be hegemony or discipline.
Conclusion
Socialisation and social control are two faces of one regulatory process: the first prevents deviance, the second corrects it, and each makes the other effective. In a plural, changing society like India, they also carry domination and can be contested, so the order they produce must continually be renegotiated.