Campus Identity: How Young People Are Reclaiming Their Cultural Roots

From language and food to clothing and festivals, college campuses across urban India are becoming spaces where young people assert cultural identity, not as nostalgia, but as a statement of self.

For a long time, college campus culture in urban India has followed an unspoken rule: fitting in matters more than standing out. English-inflected conversation, Western dress codes and the suppression of regional identity were often the price of acceptance. That rule is slowly breaking down. Young people across colleges are reclaiming their cultural roots with confidence, and they are doing so openly.

Food, language, festivals and clothing are no longer kept private or saved for home. They are visible, shared and a conscious form of identity. This is not about tradition for tradition’s sake. It is about ownership.

Campus spaces are increasingly shaped by food as a cultural marker. Lunchboxes have become symbols of memory rather than mere convenience. Students bring regional dishes, share them with peers and talk about the flavours attached to different places and families. Hostel kitchens have quietly become informal cultural centres, where someone’s homemade thepla, rasam or misal pav becomes a point of connection. Food no longer needs to be explained or apologised for. For many students, regional food, eaten far from home, provides a sense of grounding. It holds together language, family and an unfamiliar environment.

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Language is another powerful site of reclamation. English remains dominant in the classroom, but outside it, students are increasingly comfortable switching into their mother tongues. Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Hindi are spoken openly and with pride.

What has shifted is the association. Speaking a regional language on campus no longer implies exclusion or a lack of sophistication; it signals self-acceptance. Social media, campus clubs and regional peer groups have normalised multilingual identity rather than eroded it.

Clothing has become one of the most visible means by which Gen Z expresses cultural pride. Handloom kurtas, silver jewellery and regional prints – dupattas styled without ceremony – appear on campuses regularly now, not only for festivals. Crucially, this is not a return to traditional dress in any rigid sense. It is an adaptation. Students pair sneakers with kurtas, wear sarees with tote bags, and dress this way in everyday contexts rather than ceremonial ones. Clothing here is not about performing heritage; it is about inhabiting it.

Campus celebrations of regional festivals have also shifted in character. Informal gatherings around Lohri evenings, Onam lunches, Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, Durga Puja pandals and Eid food-sharing have become genuine spaces for exchange and learning, rather than performances put on for an imagined audience.

This revival of cultural identity is not accidental. Gen Z is coming of age amid political polarisation, debates over nationalism, language and belonging, and a heightened awareness of social hierarchies. In these circumstances, cultural identity becomes something personal rather than inherited. Returning to one’s roots offers a kind of stability in uncertain times. There is also a generational confidence at play.

What makes this shift significant is that it is chosen. Cultural expression on campus is not imposed or inherited blindly. It is selected, deliberated and self-defined. Young people are not glorifying the past; they are reworking it to fit their present lives.

In reclaiming cultural roots, this generation is not turning inward. They are expanding outward, making campuses more plural, expressive and honest. College spaces are no longer simply sites of professional preparation; they are becoming places where identity is discussed, expressed and asserted. For Gen Z, cultural pride is no longer something to grow out of. It is something to grow into.