The couple who won compensation of more than R$1 million for ‘food racism’ in the USA

Urmi Bhattacheryya and Aditya Prakash sued the university they attended alleging racial discrimination Urmi Bhattacheryya via BBC An argument that began over a plate of microwaved food ended with two Indian students winning a $200,000 settlement from a university in the United States. Aditya Prakash and his fiancée, Urmi Bhattacheryya, have filed a civil rights lawsuit against the University of Colorado Boulder after they faced a series of “microaggressions and retaliations” following the microwave incident. According to the lawsuit, the harassment began after a university employee objected to Prakash heating his lunch of palak paneer — one of the most popular North Indian dishes, made from pureed spinach and paneer (the equivalent of cottage cheese) — in a microwave on campus because of the smell of the food. In response to questions from the BBC, the university said it would not comment on the “specific circumstances” surrounding the allegations of discrimination and harassment made by students due to privacy laws, but that it is “committed to promoting an inclusive environment for all students, faculty and staff, regardless of origin, religion, culture and other categories protected by US law and university policies”. READ MORE: The guru of Chavismo: who is the Indian who became the object of devotion of Maduro and Delcy Rodríguez The photo of a Brazilian woman who became the center of accusations of electoral fraud in India “When these allegations emerged in 2023, we took them seriously and adhered to established and robust processes to address them, as we do with all reports of discrimination and harassment. We reached an agreement with the students in September [de 2025] and we deny any responsibility in this case,” the university said. Prakash says that for him, the lawsuit was never about getting money. “It was about showing that there are consequences for those who discriminate against Indians because of their ‘Indianness,'” he said. abroad. Some have also pointed out that food-related discrimination is widespread in India itself, where non-vegetarian foods are banned in many schools and colleges because they are seen as unclean or dirty. People from disadvantaged castes and northeastern states often face prejudice for their eating habits, with complaints about the smell of the ingredients they use. ‘Pungent odor’ Prakash and Bhattacheryya claim that it all started in September 2023. Prakash, a PhD student in the university’s Department of Anthropology, was heating his lunch of palak paneer in the microwave when an employee allegedly commented that the food gave off a “pungent” odor and said that there was a rule prohibiting heating strong-smelling foods in that microwave Prakash said that the rule was not mentioned anywhere, and when asked which foods were considered. “pungent”, he was told that sandwiches were not, but that curry was. Prakash claimed that, after this episode, there was a series of actions by the university that led to him and Bhattacheryya — who was also a doctoral candidate at the institution — losing research funding, teaching roles and even the doctoral supervisors with whom they had been working for months. 2025, Prakash and Bhattacheryya filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging discriminatory treatment and a “pattern of escalating retaliation” against them. In September, the university reached an agreement to end the lawsuit. This type of agreement is usually made to avoid long and costly legal disputes for both parties. In a statement sent to the BBC, the university added: “The CU Bolder Department of Anthropology has worked to rebuild trust among students, staff and faculty. Among the initiatives, 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 welcoming environment for all.” “Individuals who are found responsible for violating university policies that prevent discrimination and harassment are held accountable,” he added. ‘Go back to India’ Prakash says this was not his first experience with food-related discrimination. People from northeastern India often face prejudice regarding their eating habits Getty Images via BBC According When he grew up in Italy, his teachers often asked him to sit at a separate table during lunch breaks because his classmates found the smell of food “disgusting.” “Acts like isolating me from my European classmates or preventing me from using a shared microwave because of the smell of my food are ways for white people to control your Indianness and restrict the spaces in which you can exist,” he says. “The word ‘curry’ has become associated with the ‘smell’ of marginalized communities working in kitchens and people’s homes, and has become a pejorative term for ‘Indian,'” she says. Bhattacheryya says that not even someone like former US Vice President Kamala Harris is immune to food-related insults. “it would smell like curry.” Loomer denied being racist. In the lawsuit, Bhattacheryya also alleged that he faced retaliation after inviting Prakash to give a guest lecture in his anthropology class on cultural relativism. 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 contexts. names. See the videos trending on g1 Bhattacheryya says she also suffered racist abuse when she posted a thread on that what they wanted from the university was to be heard and understood, and for their pain at being “different” to be acknowledged, and for amends to be made in a meaningful way. They claim they have never received a meaningful apology from the university. The university has not responded to the BBC’s inquiry about this. They have since returned to India and say they may never return to the US. Precarity is acute, and our experience at university is a good example of this,” says Prakash.

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