The University of Colorado agreed to pay Indian students $200,000 and award them Master's degrees, though they have been barred from future enrolment or employment
New York: Two Indian Ph.D students at the University of Colorado Boulder won a civil rights settlement worth $200,000, as well as their dignity, after facing systemic discrimination over their choice of eating Indian food. The lawsuit relates to a 2023 incident when Aditya Prakash, now 34, was pursuing a PhD at the university's Anthropology Department.
On September 5, 2023, about a year after joining the university, Prakash said he was heating his lunch of palak paneer in a microwave at the department when a female staff member walked up to him, complained about the "smell", and told him not to use the microwave to heat his food and that it smelled 'pungent'.
He said he tried arguing that it was a common space and he too has the right to access it.
"My food is my pride. And notions about what smells good or bad to someone are culturally determined," Prakash told The Indian Express. He said one of the facility members tried to argue that even broccoli heating was prohibited because of the strong odor. "I replied that context matters. 'How many groups of people do you know who face racism because they eat broccoli?'"
The matter soon escalated, with Prakash's partner, Urmi Bhattacheryya, now 35, getting involved and supporting him. The couple alleged that they were subjected to discrimination for standing their ground on the kitchen incident.
Prakash claimed he was repeatedly called into meetings with senior faculty over accusations that he made the staff member "feel unsafe".
Bhattacheryya said she was fired from her teaching assistant position without an explanation for supporting Prakash.
"The department also refused to grant us master's degrees that PhD students are awarded en route to the PhD. That's when we decided to seek legal recourse," Prakash said.
In their lawsuit against the university in the United States District Court for Colorado, Prakash and Bhattacheryya alleged that after the kitchen dispute, the university withheld their master's degrees, which they had earned en route to their PhDs. They also alleged that they were subjected to a hostile environment that hampered their academic progress.
The lawsuit argued that the university's reaction to their cultural food was a manifestation of deeper "systemic bias" against international students.
In September 2025, the University of Colorado Boulder paid $200,000 to Prakash and Bhattacharyya, settling the case and conferring their master's degrees on them. However, the two have been barred from future enrolment or employment at the university.
