{"id":111980,"date":"2026-01-21T03:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=111980"},"modified":"2026-01-21T03:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T03:25:00","slug":"the-indian-couple-who-won-a-200000-settlement-over-food-racism-at-us-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=111980","title":{"rendered":"The Indian couple who won a $200,000 settlement over \u2018food racism\u2019 at US university"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A dispute that began over heating a dish in a microwave has ended with two Indian students winning a $200,000 settlement from a US university.<\/p>\n

Aditya Prakash and his fianc\u00e9e, Urmi Bhattacheryya, told the BBC they filed a civil rights lawsuit against the University of Colorado, Boulder, after they faced a series of \u201cmicroaggressions and retaliatory actions\u201d following the microwave incident.<\/p>\n

The harassment began, the lawsuit alleged, after a university staff member objected to Prakash heating up his lunch of palak paneer \u2013 one of northern India\u2019s most popular dishes, made of pureed spinach and paneer (considered an Indian equivalent of cottage cheese) \u2013 in a microwave on campus, because of the way it smelled.<\/p>\n

In response to the BBC\u2019s questions, the university said it could not comment on the \u201cspecific circumstances\u201d surrounding the students\u2019 claims of discrimination and harassment due to privacy laws, but added it was \u201ccommitted to fostering an inclusive environment for all students, faculty and staff regardless of national origin, religion, culture and other classes protected under US laws and by university policies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen these allegations arose in 2023, we took them seriously and adhered to established, robust processes to address them, as we do with all claims of discrimination and harassment. We reached an agreement with the students in September [2025] and deny any liability in this case,\u201d the university said.<\/p>\n

Prakash said for them, the point of the lawsuit was not the money. \u201cIt was about making a point \u2013 that there are consequences to discriminating against Indians for their \u2018Indianness\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit has received significant media coverage in India since it was first reported last week, starting a conversation around what many have described as \u201cfood racism\u201d in Western countries. Many Indians on social media have shared their experiences of being ridiculed for their food habits abroad.<\/p>\n

Some have also pointed out that discrimination over food is rampant in India as well, where non-vegetarian food is banned in many schools and colleges over perceptions of it being impure or dirty. People from disadvantaged castes and north-eastern states often face bias over their food habits, with some complaining about the smell of the ingredients they use.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just Indian or South Asian food \u2013 communities from Africa, Latin America and other parts of Asia have also shared their experiences of being shamed over their food habits.<\/p>\n

Prakash and Bhattacheryya claim their ordeal began in September 2023. Prakash, a PhD student in the Anthropology Department at the university, was microwaving his lunch of palak paneer when a British staff member allegedly remarked that his food was giving off a \u201cpungent\u201d odour and told him that there was a rule against heating foods with strong odours in that microwave.<\/p>\n

Prakash said the rule wasn\u2019t mentioned anywhere, and when he later inquired about which foods were considered pungent, he was told that sandwiches were not, while curry was.<\/p>\n

Palak paneer is prepared using pureed spinach and cubes of paneer cheese<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prakash alleged that the exchange was followed by a series of actions by the university which led to him and Bhattacheryya, who was also a PhD student there, losing their research funding, teaching roles and even the PhD advisers they had worked with for months.<\/p>\n

In May 2025, Prakash and Bhattacheryya filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging discriminatory treatment and a \u201cpattern of escalating retaliation\u201d against them.<\/p>\n

In September, the university settled the lawsuit. Such settlements are usually reached to avoid lengthy, expensive court battles for both parties.<\/p>\n

According to the terms of the settlement, the university agreed to award the students their degrees but denied all liability and banned them from studying or working there in the future.<\/p>\n

In its statement shared with the BBC, the university added: \u201cCU Boulder\u2019s Anthropology Department has worked to rebuild trust among students, faculty and staff. Among other efforts, department leaders met with graduate students, faculty and staff to listen and discuss changes that best support the department\u2019s efforts to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndividuals who are determined to be responsible for violating university policies preventing discrimination and harassment are held accountable,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

Prakash says that this isn\u2019t his first brush with discrimination over food.<\/p>\n

When he was growing up in Italy, his school teachers would often ask him to sit at a separate table during lunch breaks because his classmates found the smell of his food \u201coff-putting\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

People from north-eastern India often face bias over their food habits, with some complaining about the smell of the ingredients they use<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cActs like isolating me from my European classmates or stopping me from using a shared microwave because of how my food smells are how white people control your Indianness and shrink the spaces you can exist in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He adds that there is a long history of food being used to put down Indian and other ethnic groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe word \u2018curry\u2019 has been conflated with the \u2018smell\u2019 of marginalised communities who toil in kitchens and peoples\u2019 homes and has been turned into a pejorative term for \u2018Indian\u2019,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Bhattacheryya says that even someone like former Vice-President Kamala Harris isn\u2019t immune to being insulted over food.<\/p>\n

She points to a 2024 social media post by far-right activist Laura Loomer saying that if Harris became president,\u00a0the White House \u201cwill smell like curry\u201d. Loomer has denied being racist.<\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, Bhattacheryya also alleged she faced retaliation after she invited Prakash to speak as a guest lecturer on the topic of cultural relativism in her anthropology class. Cultural relativism is the view that no culture is superior or inferior to another as cultural practices of all groups exist within their own cultural context.<\/p>\n

During the lecture, Prakash says he shared several examples of food racism he had encountered, including the palak paneer incident, without naming anyone.<\/p>\n

Bhattacheryya says that she also faced racist abuse when she posted a thread on X about the \u201csystemic racism\u201d she and Prakash were facing at the university in 2024.<\/p>\n

Below the post, there are several comments supporting the couple but also ones that said, \u201cgo back to India\u201d, \u201cdecolonisation was a mistake\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s not just the food, many of you don\u2019t bathe and we know\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prakash and Bhattacheryya said what they wanted from the university was to be heard and understood; for their hurt and pain at being \u201cothered\u201d to be acknowledged and for amends to be made in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

They claim that they never received a meaningful apology from the university. The university did not respond to the BBC\u2019s question about this.<\/p>\n

They have since returned to India and say that they might never go back to the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how good you are at what you do, the system is constantly telling you that because of your skin colour or your nationality, you can be sent back any time. The precarity is acute, and our experience at the university is a good example of this,\u201d Prakash says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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