Indian couple win $200,000 settlement over ‘food racism’ at US university

A dispute that started over heating a dish in the microwave ended with two Indian students winning a $200,000 settlement from an American university.

Aditya Prakash and his fiancée Urmi Bhattacharya told the BBC that they had filed a civil rights lawsuit against the University of Colorado at Boulder, after facing a series of “microaggressions and retaliatory actions” in the wake of the microwave incident.

The harassment began, the lawsuit alleged, after a university employee objected to Prakash heating up his lunch of palak pie — one of the most popular North Indian dishes, made with mashed spinach and cheese — in the microwave on campus, because of its smell.

In response to the BBC’s questions, the university said it could not comment on the “specific circumstances” surrounding students’ allegations of discrimination and harassment due to privacy laws, but added that it was “committed to promoting an inclusive environment for all students, faculty and staff regardless of national origin, religion, culture and other categories protected under US laws and university policies.”

“When these allegations arose in 2023, we took them seriously and committed to strong, established procedures to address them, as we do with all allegations of discrimination and harassment. We reached an agreement with the students in September. [2025] The university said, “We deny any responsibility in this case.”

For them, the purpose of the lawsuit is not money, Prakash said. “It was about making the point that there are consequences to discriminating against Indians because of their Indian identity.”

The lawsuit has received significant media coverage in India since it was first announced last week, sparking a debate about what many have described as “food racism” in Western countries. Many Indians on social media have shared their own experiences of facing ridicule over their eating habits abroad.

Some also pointed out that food discrimination is rampant in India as well, with non-vegetarian foods being banned in many schools and colleges due to their perception of being impure or dirty. People from underprivileged castes and northeastern states often face prejudice about their eating habits, with some complaining about the smell of the ingredients they use.

It’s not just Indian or South Asian food, communities from Africa, Latin America and other parts of Asia have also shared their experiences of feeling shamed for their eating habits.

Prakash and Bhattacharya claim their ordeal began in September 2023. Prakash, a PhD student in the university’s Department of Anthropology, was preparing his lunch in the microwave when a British employee noticed that his food was emitting a “strong” smell and told him that there was a rule against heating foods with strong odors in that microwave.

Prakash said the rule was not mentioned anywhere, and when he later inquired which foods were considered pungent, he was told that sandwiches were not, while curries were.

Prakash claimed that the exchange was followed by a series of actions by the university that resulted in him and Bhattacharya – who was also a doctoral student there – losing funding for their research, teaching roles and even doctoral advisors who had worked with them for several months.

In May 2025, Prakash and Bhattacharya filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging discriminatory treatment and an “escalating pattern of retaliation” against them.

In September, the university settled the lawsuit. Such settlements are usually reached to avoid long and costly court battles for both parties.

Under the terms of the settlement, the university agreed to grant the students their degrees, but denied all its obligations and prevented them from studying or working there in the future.

“The Department of Anthropology at CU Boulder has worked to rebuild trust among students, faculty, and staff,” the university added in its joint statement with the BBC. “Among other efforts, department leaders met with graduate students, faculty, and staff to listen and discuss changes that better support the department’s efforts to foster an inclusive and supportive environment for all.”

“Individuals who decide to be responsible for violating university policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment are held accountable,” she added.

Prakash says this is not his first encounter with food discrimination.

He says that when he was growing up in Italy, his school teachers would often ask him to sit at a separate table during lunch break because his classmates found the smell of his food “disturbing.”

“Actions like isolating me from my European colleagues or preventing me from using a shared microwave because of the smell of my food is how white people control your Indian identity and shrink the spaces you can live in,” he says.

He adds that there is a long history of using food to oppress Indian and other ethnic groups.

“The word ‘curry’ has been conflated with the ‘smell’ of marginalized communities toiling in kitchens and people’s homes, and has turned into a pejorative term for ‘Indian,'” he says.

Even someone like former Vice President Kamala Harris isn’t immune to being insulted by food, Bhattacharya says.

She points to a post by far-right activist Laura Loomer on social media in 2024 in which she said that if Harris became president, White House ‘will smell like curry’. Loomer denied being racist.

In the lawsuit, Bhattacharya also alleged that 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 the cultural practices of all groups exist within their own cultural context.

During the lecture, Prakash said he shared several examples of food racism he has encountered, including the Black Paneer incident, without naming anyone.

Bhattacharya says she also faced racist abuse when she posted on X about the “systemic racism” she and Prakash were facing at university in 2024.

Below the post, there are many comments supportive of the couple, but there are also comments saying: “Go back to India,” “Decolonization was a mistake,” and “It’s not just about the food, many of you don’t shower and we know it.”

Prakash and Bhattacharya said what they want from the university is to be heard and understood; In order to acknowledge their pain and pain for being “other” and make adjustments in a meaningful way.

They claim they never received a meaningful apology from the university. The university did not respond to the BBC’s question about this matter.

They have since returned to India and say they may never return to the United States.

“No matter how good you are at what you do, the system is constantly telling you that because of the color of your skin or your nationality, you can be sent back at any time,” says Prakash. “The precarity is acute and our experience at university is a good example of that.”

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