Social Environment: Meaning, Concept and Features

Meaning and Concept of Social Environment:

True it is that man lives in particular geographical conditions and that he has for his society a definite
pattern of economic activities; yet social man is as much the product of his social environment as he is of
physical surroundings and economic conditions. The social environment has been equated with his
culture and writers like Graham Wallas have termed it as his ‘social heritage’.

According to McIver, man lives under a ‘total environment’, a concept of his ecology that comprehends
his total existence. As he lives in the plains or in the hills, and as he engages in agricultural or industrial
activities, he lives a life that has been shaped by his social heritage. He is born under it and, in his family;
he learns first to get conditioned to customs and practices, beliefs and norms that are of his community.

In India, he first learns the “meaning of the festival of ‘Diwali’ or ‘Id-ul-fitr’; and later he comes to know
of the practices prevalent in foreign countries. In a way, social norms sit so heavy upon his
understanding that, while he is at work, he semi-consciously responds to their dictates. In India, the
belief is transmigration of souls and the doctrine of ‘Karma’, according to which the conditions of his
present life are to be determined by his work in the previous life, brings to his mentality a feeling of
detachment and an attitude of resignation which is so unique to our indigenous population. No matter
how far we industrialize ourselves, this attitude remains at the back of all our activities.

It cannot be forgotten that in the soil of India a luxurious prince Siddhartha changes himself into the
lofty Buddha, a Chandashoka gets transformed into Dharmashoka, and the Chambal dacoits offer their
ferocity and tyranny at the feet of a Lokanayaka. Not all our conquerors at all times could free
themselves of his tendency, as the pages of history tell us.

According to McIver, environment has both its physical and social aspects. A section of the physical
environment remains uncontrolled by him, while another part he modifies to his advantages. He
improves the soil that he cultivates, domesticates the animal that he uses, and makes tools and
equipments suiting his knowledge and technical skill.

The social aspects cover the shape of the community of which we become members, and the norms and
standards that we accept as our folkways, mores and customs. Graham Wallas states that, after
socialising himself, man takes to his social heritage so closely and intently that, if he were to be removed
from it, he would perhaps perish.

Socialization of an individual as discussed in an earlier chapter, will show that he must learn to live not
merely as an individual, but as a member of the society to which he belongs. Yet there is another aspect
of socialization which demands that he should learn to adjust himself to the material conditions that his
society offers.

Our speech and our manners we acquire in the course of time without much of a difficulty and there is
an element of generality in these matters. In certain respects, however, as in our attempts to participate
in the traditions relating to art, literature, philosophy, music and religion, the demands upon our ability
are exacting, and it cannot be said that our identification without our social heritage has become
complete. There lies the difference between an artist and students of art; the former comprehends his
cultural heritage while the latter merely make attempts at realizing it.
The social environment presents to every individual the problem of adjustment. Primitive man did not
find a variety of conditions before him to which he was required to adjust himself; but modern man has
a complex social set-up before him which makes greater demands for adjustment.

Features of Social Environment:

The process of adjustment has certain distinct features and they are as follows:

(1) Modern complex society presents problems for the individual that he reacts to the conditions with
attitudes of ‘conflict’, to some extent, and of ‘accommodation’. As a result, he is able only partially to
adjust himself to the surroundings. Every individual selects for himself only that part of his culture which
suits his aptitudes and carefully rejects the rest. Thus, he has the right to choose his own occupation
and, to adopt educational, recreational and living conditions that associate themselves with such
occupation.

(2) Society is never static; it is always changing from one set condition to another. This factor alone
requires man to be ‘dynamic’ in his attitude of ‘adjustment ‘. In the span of one single life, man may
have to change from certain conditions to others; and in any developing country, the impact of
industrialization is so intense that the individual undergoing the experience has to adjust himself with
utmost rapidity.

(3) The efforts required by an individual accustomed to a given environment to adjust himself to a new
and unknown environment would raise the question of ‘readjustment’. There may be conditions of
political upheaval in a state which would throw out the old establishment and introduce new ideas.

In these conditions, environmental habituation would experience a rude shock, and a consequent re-
adjustment of the individual to the new set-up would become necessary. In India, we have not had the
experience of drastic changes in our social conditions and, besides the demands of industrialization no
other phenomenon of revolutionary nature has ever affected our society.

But there have been different types of experiences for us which, from time to time, have required a re-
adjustment to the new environment. The question of re-adjustment must have been important when
foreigners came to our country’ and with their continued stay here, whether by way of adoption of the
country itself or purely for purposes of governance of it, they imported a new culture into the soil.

A generally admitted fact is that whenever a culture enters a country as the ruler’s culture it tends to
master over the local one; and this has been true with India and the change in the society would have
been complete, but for the fact that the indigenous population here has an innate quality and a
capability of negatively resisting anything that is unacceptable. ‘Satyagraha’ is characteristic of this
quality of the average Indian.