Indian students win USD-200,000 settlement over food bias at US varsity

Two Indian PhD students at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States have secured a civil rights settlement worth USD 200,000 (approximately Rs 1.8 crore) after alleged acts of systemic discrimination over their consumption of Indian food.

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The lawsuit stems from a 2023 incident involving Aditya Prakash, then a PhD candidate in the university’s Department of Anthropology.

Dispute over food odour

On September 5, 2023, around a year after joining the university, Prakash was reportedly reheating his lunch of palak paneer in a departmental microwave when a female staff member objected to the “smell” and instructed him not to use the appliance for that purpose.

“She said the smell was pungent,” Prakash, 34, told The Indian Express, adding that he argued the microwave was in a common space and that he had an equal right to use it.

“My food is my pride. Perceptions of what smells good or bad are culturally determined,” he said.

Prakash further claimed that a facilities staff member argued that heating foods such as broccoli was also prohibited because of strong odours. “I responded that context matters,” he said. “How many groups of people face racism because they eat broccoli?”

Cultural discrimination

The dispute escalated when Prakash’s partner, Urmi Bhattacharyya, intervened in his support. The couple alleged that they were subsequently subjected to discriminatory treatment for standing their ground over the incident.

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Prakash said he was repeatedly summoned to meetings with senior faculty members following allegations that he had made the staff member “feel unsafe”. Bhattacharyya said she was dismissed from her teaching assistant position without explanation after supporting Prakash.

“The department also refused to award us the master’s degrees that PhD students typically receive along the way. That is when we decided to pursue legal action,” Prakash reportedly said.

Duo barred from varsity

In their lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for Colorado, the couple alleged that the university withheld their earned master’s degrees following the kitchen dispute and subjected them to a hostile academic environment that impeded their progress.

The suit argued that the university’s response to their cultural food practices reflected deeper systemic bias against international students.

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In September 2025, the University of Colorado Boulder agreed to pay USD 200,000 to Prakash and Bhattacharyya to settle the case and conferred their master’s degrees. However, the settlement also bars them from future enrolment or employment at the university.