Two Indian PhD students of anthropology who accused the University of Colorado Boulder of “systemic racism and discrimination” have received a settlement of $200,000.
But they had to withdraw the complaint, faced institutional harassment including the revocation of their funding, and returned to India last October without completing their PhD, they said. Under an agreement, they cannot study or work in the university in future.
Aditya Prakash, 34, from Bhopal, and Urmi Bhattacheryya, 35, from Calcutta, said the “discrimination” had begun on September 5, 2023.
On that day, Prakash had used the main office microwave at the university’s anthropology department to heat his “palak paneer”. This prompted the administrative assistant to remark, “Oof, that’s pungent”, according to the case document.
Prakash responded that it was simply food and “different food is just that — different”. He said he would be out in a minute, the document says.
He returned to his desk to eat, “feeling othered and saddened”. He was told it was important “to keep the office smelling nice”, the document adds.
When Prakash asked which food was pungent and which not, a staff member allegedly told him, “’sandwiches’ for not pungent and ‘curry’ for pungent”.
“I felt hurt and diminished. I tried to reason that we need to co-exist... the palak paneer had turned to ash in my mouth,” Prakash told The Telegraph over the phone.
“That they mentioned they want to keep the space smelling nice pointed to the idea that our food was an antithesis to what is nice.”
Attacks on the food choices of specific communities have been reported widely in India, too, ranging from lynchings for alleged beef storage to the bullying of Bengali fish sellers in north India and diktats to students from the Northeast not to cook “smelly” dishes.
As Prakash and Bhattacheryya were communicating with this newspaper, the country’s top court was dealing with an intense controversy relating to the contours of caste discrimination on Indian campuses.
At the US university on September 7, 2023, Prakash and four anthropology graduate students used the main office microwave “to heat ethnic foods in an act of solidarity”.
The case document says that the same day, Bhattacheryya, as part of her teaching assistant responsibilities, taught cultural relativism highlighting how “various cultures and societies have different ethical and cultural practices”.
Bhattacheryya invited Prakash to speak as a guest lecturer and “provide real-world perspectives on cultural relativism”.
Prakash shared his experiences of growing up in Rome and attending an international school, and also cited how his palak paneer was called “pungent” at the department.
Bhattacheryya was later removed from her teaching assistant position.
Around mid-September, 2023, the university’s office of institutional equity and compliance (OIEC) contacted Prakash and Bhattacheryya and asked if they wanted to file a formal complaint. They agreed.
The OIEC opened investigations into the alleged food racism, microaggressions and Bhattacheryya’s removal from her teaching assistant position.
The case document says that during their doctoral studies, Prakash and Bhattacheryya maintained “exemplary academic records, with both achieving 4.0 grade point averages, consistently received competitive research funding, and praise from facultyfor their scholarly contributions”.
It adds that the university’s retaliation against them included the mass resignations of their advisory committees, their reassignment to advisers outside their sub-disciplines, denial of promised credit transfers, poor performance feedback, and the downgrading of their student status (making them ineligible for department grants).
“Eventually, even our stipends were taken away,” Bhattacheryya told this newspaper.
“We believe that this was an important case to fight -- not just for us and our right to eat and exist in common, shared spaces, but also as people of cultures with ‘foods’ that are deemed ‘different’, ‘other’, even though an anthropology department studies just that,” she said.
“We have chosen to return without our PhDs, but feel like our voices must be heard for greater reach at such a sensitive time in the US.”
According to the settlement agreement of September 2025, “the University will pay Plaintiffs a total of $200,000 to settle all claims asserted or that could have been asserted in the Civil Actions”.
The duo received the payment, which included lawyer fees, in November. Under US law, they are barred from revealing the details and circumstances of the award process.
The settlement agreement says the plaintiffs have agreed to “formally withdraw their complaints of discrimination pending with CU Boulder Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance by emailing”.
An email this newspaper sent to the US university relating to the allegations, lawsuit and settlement elicited a response from Deborah Méndez-Wilson, spokesperson, issues management, University of Colorado Boulder.
“When 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 and deny any liability in this case,” she wrote.
“...Federal student and employee privacy laws prevent us from commenting on the specific circumstances surrounding claims of discrimination and harassment.”