In a lawsuit dating back to 2023, two Indian PhD students candidates who are currently studying at the University of Colorado Boulder (US), received $2,00,000 (approximately Rs 1.8 crore) in damages due to their experiences with systemic discrimination based on their preferences for Indian cuisine.
The case involved Aditya Prakash (now 34) who was pursuing his doctorate in Anthropology at the time.
On September 5, 2023, Prakash, who stated that he had been a student at the university for approximately one year, had just begun heating his lunch of palak paneer in the microwave at the department when a female staff member came over to him and complained about its smell. She went on to tell Prakash that he could not use the microwave for heating food.
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The incident
Prakash told the Indian Express that the female staff complained about the "smell". However, Prakash countered that it was a common space and he had the right to access it.
"My food is my pride and notions about what smells good or bad to someone are culturally determined," Prakash said.
He sad that one of the faculty members told him that even broccoli heating was barred due to its strong odour. "I replied that context matters. 'How many groups of people do you know who face racism because they eat broccoli?'"
However, the matter soon escalated and Prakash's partner Urmi Bhattacheryya (now 35) also got involved. The couple alleged they were subjected to discrimination for not budging from their stance on the incident.
Terminated from job over incident
In his statements, Prakash claimed that he received multiple calls from members of the faculty after he was accused of making the university faculty staff "feel threatened".
According to Bhattacheryya, she was terminated from her teaching assistant role without any justification due to her support of Prakash.
In their lawsuit against the university filed in the United States District Court for Colorado, both Prakash and Bhattacheryya contended that following the incident in the kitchen, the university did not issue their master's degree diplomas which were an integral part of their education towards their PhD completion. In addition, they alleged that they were subjected to an environment that hampered their academic progress.
"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.
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Battle won
In September 2025, Prakash and Bhattacharyya received payment of $2,00,000 from the University of Colorado Boulder as a resolution to their case and to award them their master's degrees. However, both have been denied future admission or employment at the university.
Recently, Bhattacheryya posted their victory on Instagram and wrote, "This year, I fought a fight – a fight for the freedom to eat what I want and to protest at will... no matter the colour of my skin, my ethnic extraction or the unflinchingly unchanged Indian accent."
