Two Indian PhD students studying in the U.S. were awarded a massive settlement after suing their university for a dispute over the smell of Indian food in a campus microwave.
In September 2023, Aditya Prakash, a 34-year-old PhD student in the University of Colorado Boulder Anthropology Department, was heating palak paneer in a departmental microwave when a staff member approached him, reportedly complained about the smell, and told him not to use it, according to a complaint reviewed by Complex.
Prakash claims he responded calmly, saying he was just heating up the food and leaving. However, the incident, which they called "an experience of racial and ethnic microaggressions by department staff," marked the start of a series of conflicts that escalated over the next two years, according to the complaint
The student, who came to the United States on student visa to pursue a doctoral degree, then said he was repeatedly summoned to meetings with senior faculty, accused of making staff members “feel unsafe.” He was later reported to the Office of Student Conduct.
Two days after the incident, Prakash’s fellow PhD student and partner, Urmi Bhattacheryya, along with three other students brought Indian food to campus, they were accused of "inciting a riot," though those complaints were later dismissed by the Office of Student Conduct.
Bhattacheryya says she lost her teaching assistant position without warning following the incident.
The couple, who are now engaged, received support from 29 fellow students after a chairperson sent a department-wide email about the kitchen use policy and how members of the community are asked “to refrain from preparing foods with strong or lingering smells in the main office.”
The students criticized the department's "harmful response" and their "discriminatory food policies," citing the department's Statement on Systemic Racism and Violence.
Per court documents, the two filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in September 2025. The university settled, paying $200,000, awarding them Master's degrees, but barring them from future enrollment or employment.
“There is a hardening, a kind of narrowing of empathy,” Bhattacheryya told The Indian Express. “Institutions talk a lot about inclusion, but there is less patience for discomfort, especially if that discomfort comes from immigrants or people of color.”
“I don’t see myself going back,” Prakash also told the newspaper. “If this case can send out a message that this [food racism] cannot be practiced with impunity, that we, as Indians, will fight back, that would be the real victory.”
The Indian Express also says Prakash and Bhattacheryya returned to India for good this month.