An Indian couple have secured a $200,000 (£146,000) settlement from the University of Colorado Boulder after a civil rights lawsuit over a dispute involving reheating “pungent” food in a shared campus kitchen.
Doctoral students Aditya Prakash and his fiancee Urmi Bhattacheryya claimed what they called “food racism” ultimately led to the loss of their PhD funding.
The row centred on palak paneer, a North Indian dish of spinach and cottage cheese, which Mr Prakash was heating in the anthropology department’s microwave.
The university agreed to the $200,000 (£146,000) settlement in September 2025, while denying any wrongdoing.
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Under the terms of the settlement, both students were awarded master’s degrees but are permanently barred from studying or working at the university.
The row began in September 2023 when Mr Prakash was reheating his lunch and an administrative assistant allegedly remarked, “Oof, that’s pungent,” before claiming there was a ban on warming strongly scented food.
Mr Prakash said no such rule was displayed anywhere and claimed he was later told that sandwiches were acceptable - but curry was not.
After he challenged the comment, he alleged the staff member raised her voice.
“Food is just food,” he said. “I’ll be done in a minute.”
Aditya Prakash (left) and his fiancee Urmi Bhattacheryya (right) claimed to be victims of 'food racism'
|Two days later, Mr Prakash and four fellow students, including Ms Bhattacheryya, intentionally reheated Indian food using the same microwave.
Soon after, the department sent a staff-wide email urging people to avoid food with “strong or lingering smells”.
Mr Prakash hit back, calling the guidance discriminatory and questioning why another colleague was allowed to cook chilli in a slow cooker.
When he was told even broccoli could be considered unsuitable, he replied: “How many people face racism every day because they eat broccoli?”
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The row centred on palak paneer, a North Indian dish of spinach and cottage cheese
|GETTY
Over the following year, the couple said their academic careers unravelled without warning.
Their lawsuit claims supervisors abruptly dropped them, they were reassigned to advisers outside their fields, told they were falling behind academically, denied credit transfers and removed from teaching roles.
“We were 4.0 GPA students,” Mr Prakash said. “At every level, the department tried to sabotage us and portray us as somehow maladjusted.”
The pair filed a civil rights lawsuit in Denver’s federal court in May 2025, accusing the university of discrimination and escalating retaliation.
University of Colorado Boulder insisted it acted appropriately throughout
|GETTY
The university insisted it acted appropriately throughout, saying federal privacy laws prevented it from discussing specific details.
“When these allegations were raised in 2023, we took them seriously and followed established procedures to address them, as we do with all claims of discrimination and harassment,” a university spokesman said.
Mr Prakash and Ms Bhattacheryya have been living in India since October and say they may never return to the United States.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Prakash said the lawsuit was never about money.
“It was about making a point - that there are consequences for discriminating against Indians for their ‘Indianness’,” he said.
“No matter how good you are, the system keeps reminding you that because of your skin colour or nationality, you can be sent back at any time,” he added. “That insecurity is constant.”
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