A lunch of palak paneer, and how two Indian students won a $200,000 settlement with US university

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But the matter did not end there. In September 2025, following a civil rights lawsuit, the University of Colorado Boulder settled with Prakash and his partner Urmi Bhattacheryya, a fellow PhD student, paying the two $200,000, conferring on them Master’s degrees, but barring the two from future enrolment or employment at the university. This month, Prakash and Bhattacheryya returned to India for good.

Talking about “systemic racism”, Prakash says: “The department also refused to grant us Master’s degrees that PhD students are awarded enroute the PhD. That’s when we decided to seek legal recourse.”

In the civil lawsuit filed before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, the two said that after Prakash raised concerns about “discriminatory treatment”, the university “engaged in a pattern of escalating retaliation”.

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It talked of a departmental kitchen policy that had a “disproportionate and discriminatory impact on ethnic groups like South Asians”, saying this made many Indians wary of opening their lunches in shared spaces. The “discriminatory treatment and ongoing retaliation”, Prakash and Bhattacheryya said, caused them “emotional distress, mental anguish, and pain and suffering”.

In a statement to The Indian Express, university spokesperson Deborah Mendez-Wilson said: “The university reached an agreement with the plaintiffs and denies any liability. The university has established processes to address allegations of discrimination and harassment, and it adhered to those processes in this matter. CU Boulder remains committed to fostering an inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff.”

When the row over heating of the food occurred, Prakash says, he was a fully funded PhD student. As part of the “harassment”, he alleges, he was frequently summoned for meetings with senior faculty, accused of making “the staff feel unsafe”, and complained about at the Office of Student Conduct.

‘Lost teaching job without explanation’

Bhattacheryya claims she lost her teaching assistant job without warning or explanation, and that when she and three other students brought Indian food two days after the incident, they were accused of “inciting a riot” on the campus. She says the complaints were dismissed by the Office of Student Conduct.

Prakash, who hails from Bhopal, and Bhattacheryya, 35, who is from Kolkata, first met in Delhi. They both enrolled for PhDs in the US later, with Bhattacheryya first taking admission in sociology at the University of Southern California before shifting to the University of Colorado Boulder.

With a middle-class background, it was a big financial commitment for the two of them. “We put all our savings into it,” says Prakash.

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The first year passed without incident, says the couple. Prakash says he got grants and funding, while Bhattacheryya’s research on marital rape was well-received.

Then came the food heating episode, and everything changed overnight. Prakash says he tried arguing that it was a common space. “My food is my pride. And notions about what smells good or bad to someone are culturally determined,” he points out.

According to him, one of the members tried to argue that even broccoli heating was prohibited because of the strong odour. “I replied that context matters. ‘How many groups of people do you know who face racism because they eat broccoli?’.”

The couple say they were happy that 29 of their fellow students in the Anthropology Department backed them, calling out the “harmful response” to the “discriminatory food policies”. The students cited the Anthropology Department’s own Statement on Systemic Racism and Violence, adding: “Of all places, the Anthropology Department should be one where diversity of all kinds should be not just tolerated, but celebrated.”

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‘Impossible to go on’

Bhattacheryya says the action against her followed two days after the incident, when she invited Prakash to talk about his lived experience at a class on ethnocentrism, without naming individuals or detailing the incident.

Soon, it became impossible for them to go on, Prakash says.

Bhattacheryya says what happened to them is in keeping with the changes sweeping the US after Donald Trump’s return to power. “There is a hardening, a kind of narrowing of empathy. Institutions talk a lot about inclusion, but there is less patience for discomfort, especially if that discomfort comes from immigrants or people of colour.”

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As an international student, the shift is unmistakable, she adds. “The message wasn’t always explicit, but it was there: you are here conditionally, and you can be made to feel that very quickly.”

In May 2025, Prakash and Bhattacheryya filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging discrimination and retaliation. By the time the settlement was reached, neither felt inclined to return to the US.

Going back would mean re-entering the same system, with the same visa precarity. “I don’t see myself going back,” Prakash says.

It means starting afresh, but Prakash says he is ready to do so. “If this case can send out a message that this (‘food racism’) cannot be practised with impunity, that we, as Indians, will fight back, that would be the real victory,” he adds.