What began as a routine lunch break for an Indian doctoral student in the US spiralled into a legal battle that ended with a Rs. 1.81 crore (USD 200,000) settlement, Master’s degrees, and a permanent exit from the American academic system.
In September 2023, Aditya Prakash, then a PhD scholar in the Anthropology Department at the University of Colorado Boulder, was warming his homemade palak paneer in a departmental microwave.
According to Prakash, a staff member objected to the “smell” of the food and asked him not to use the appliance, calling the odour pungent. Prakash, 34 at the time, refused to comply, saying he was simply heating his lunch and would leave immediately.
The episode, however, marked the beginning of what Prakash and his partner, Urmi Bhattacheryya, describe as a sustained pattern of discriminatory treatment and retaliation by the university.
According to media reports, nearly two years later, in September 2025, the University of Colorado Boulder reached a settlement with the two Indian students following a civil rights lawsuit. Under the agreement, the university paid them Rs. 1.81 crore, awarded them Master’s degrees typically granted during the course of a PhD programme, and barred them from future employment or enrolment at the institution. Earlier this month, the couple returned to India permanently.
Prakash says their decision to take legal action came after the department refused to grant them Master’s degrees, which PhD candidates usually receive en route to completing their doctorate. “That was when it became clear to us that this was systemic,” he said.
Media reports further said that in their lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Colorado, Prakash and Bhattacheryya alleged that after Prakash raised concerns about discriminatory behaviour, the university responded with escalating retaliatory actions. Central to the case was a departmental kitchen policy that they argued disproportionately affected ethnic groups, particularly South Asians, and discouraged Indian students from using shared spaces to eat their food.
The legal filing stated that the treatment they faced caused emotional distress, mental anguish and suffering.
Responding to the settlement, university spokesperson Deborah Mendez-Wilson said the institution denied any liability. “The university reached an agreement with the plaintiffs and adhered to established processes to address allegations of discrimination and harassment,” she said, adding that CU Boulder remained committed to an inclusive campus environment.
Prakash alleges that after the food-heating incident, he was repeatedly called in for meetings with senior faculty, accused of making staff feel “unsafe”, and reported to the Office of Student Conduct. At the time, he was a fully funded PhD candidate.
Bhattacheryya, 35, claims she lost her teaching assistant position without notice or explanation. She also alleges that when she and three other students brought Indian food to campus two days later, they were accused of “inciting a riot”, though those complaints were later dismissed.
The couple say they drew strength from support within the department. Twenty-nine fellow anthropology students submitted a statement criticising what they called a harmful response to discriminatory food policies, citing the department’s own commitment to opposing systemic racism.
Both Prakash, who is from Bhopal, and Bhattacheryya, who hails from Kolkata, come from middle-class families and say pursuing doctoral studies in the US required exhausting their savings. The first year of their programme passed without trouble—Prakash received grants and funding, while Bhattacheryya’s research on marital rape was well received, media reports added.
Everything changed after the lunchroom incident, they say.
Prakash argues that perceptions of food and smell are culturally shaped. “My food is my identity,” he said, adding that comparisons with other foods like broccoli ignored the racial dimension of the issue.
Bhattacheryya says the situation deteriorated further after she invited Prakash to speak in a class on ethnocentrism about his lived experience, without naming anyone involved. Soon after, continuing in the programme became untenable for both.
She links their experience to a broader hardening of attitudes in the US, particularly towards immigrants and people of colour. “Inclusion is talked about a lot, but discomfort is tolerated less—especially when it comes from outsiders,” she said.
By the time they filed the federal lawsuit in May 2025, neither wanted to continue in the US. Returning would mean navigating the same academic environment and visa uncertainty. “I don’t see myself going back,” Prakash said.
Though starting over in India poses its own challenges, Prakash believes the legal fight was worth it. “If this sends a message that ‘food racism’ cannot be practised without consequences, that will be the real win,” he said.
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