Abstract

 Language discrimination is a major phenomenon in Indian university spaces based on an individual’s affiliation with a certain language, or accent. All regional-medium students experience acute form of discrimination due to English’s dominance. Therefore, English hegemonic knowledge supremacy prevents regional medium students’ participation in classroom and other academic spaces. That turn them into silent and inactive, withdrawing from classroom debate and discussion, publishing research papers in prestigious publications, and presenting their research at academic deliberation. Thus, regional medium students experience psychological and mental pressure at higher education. It causes students to develop an inferiority complex, a fear of speaking, isolation, feeling ignored and like meagre students who cannot do anything. Many regional-medium excel in school but struggle with English linguistic imperialism in higher education. Therefore, this paper discusses the regional medium students’ narrative on their experience of stereotype, prejudice and exclusion and many students have committed suicide as well. The paper is based on empirical study, while employing interpretative phenomenological analysis to evaluate classroom and academic language discrimination. This research quantified data using SPSS tool of 100 students of Delhi University from the social science and law faculty and also included their experiential narratives from the field.