Today it is common for students to travel across States for their higher education. As a result, campuses across the country, especially in major cities, are becoming multicultural. Such a growing multiculturalism is most obvious in the languages students speak. Although there is much cross-state migration, several preconceived notions about other communities persist. Prejudices still color students’ perception and thus affect their behavior at college.

As colleges are becoming increasingly multicultural and inviting students from other States/ nations, it is interesting to note how students from various communities interact. Though English continues to be the main language of communication, several students feel that they are more comfortable talking to people in their native tongue, especially when they are away from home. Sometimes staying excluded and within your language group can help people feel less homesick.

In a college environment, a student’s nativity often determines what groups are formed and one’s nativity is established primarily by mother tongue. In some colleges almost 50 percent of students are not natives of the State in which the college is located. Students living outside their states seek familiar surroundings and people. They want a sense of security that comes when one is with someone they can identify with in one way or another. Thus students not only hang out with those who speak their language but also tend to be loyal to that group. While such loyalty can give a sense of belonging, it can also sometimes cause a sense of alienation in both the insider and the other outsider of a group. In some colleges, loyalty to language-based groups causes a lot of social friction and prevents various cross-culture student bodies from functioning optimally.

Sometimes even rules of social etiquette are flouted. For example, students often do not realize that it is rude to talk in a language that not everyone in a group understands. And students who do not know a language well alienate themselves from the other students. The most pronounced divide is that between English and Hindi. As unfortunate as it may be, there is always a perceived disconnect between those who speak Hindi and those who speak English and this is invariably translated into a disconnect between the “North” and the “South”. If, within this categorization, there is any further fragmentation, it’s usually due to the presence of pronounced accents.

Some do not think that the situation is so dismal. They see a problem only among those who can speak neither Hindi nor English. Such students are in a tiny minority though. However, given time, they too integrate into the student community.
The language one speaks sometimes indicates the socioeconomic background the speaker belongs to. Most students who come from affluent families speak English or can speak it whenever required.

India is unique in that it has the highest diversity in terms of language spoken. When people are used to talking in a particular language, they are often uncomfortable in situations where they have to communicate with those who speak other languages.
Thus, when teenagers join college, they gravitate toward people who speak their native language. Sometimes these groups have a clash of ideas or difference of opinion that causes friction.

In engineering colleges, where English fluency cannot be taken for granted, groupism is rampant but such divisions are more a result of the language barrier than any form of ideological difference. Unfortunately, students tend to stick to their groups for the entire period of their study, thereby not benefitting from the wide scope for cross-cultural learning that exists.

At the very beginning of one’s life in college, it is only natural that in a place full of strangers, one would be inclined to mix with people who are similar to oneself — speaking the same language, coming from the same region, etc. However, some believe that the initial divide caused by language is only temporary. Gradually, as students interact more with one another, this divide can be easily overcome. It is precisely for this reason that colleges organize many events that offer many opportunities for interaction among students.