Two Indian PhD students at the University of Colorado Boulder reportedly won $200,000 (around ₹1.8 crore) in civil rights settlement after alleging they were discriminated against for eating Indian food on campus — a case they say was about dignity as much as money.
The lawsuit in question dates back to 2023, when Aditya Prakash, then a PhD scholar in the university’s Anthropology Department was heating his lunch – a bowl of palak paneer.
According to a report by The Indian Express, Prakash he was reheating his lunch in a shared microwave when a female staff member complained about the “pungent” smell and told him not to use the facility.
Without losing his calm, Prakash reportedly told the staff member firmly: “It’s just food. I’m heating and leaving.”
The situation escalated after Prakash’s partner – Urmi Bhattacheryya, also a PhD scholar, supported him. The couple alleged they were subjected to retaliation for standing their ground, including repeated meetings with senior faculty where Prakash was accused of making the staff member “feel unsafe”.
Bhattacheryya said she was subsequently removed from her teaching assistant role without explanation. The university, they claimed, also withheld the master’s degrees that PhD students typically receive along the way — a move they said pushed them to seek legal recourse.
In September 2025, the University of Colorado Boulder agreed to a settlement, paying Prakash and Bhattacheryya $200,000 and awarding them their master’s degrees. However, the settlement also bars them from future enrolment or employment at the university.
Prakash – a native of Bhopal, and Bhattacheryya, 35, who is from Kolkata, first met in Delhi before enrolling for PhDs in the US. Bhattacheryya first took admission in sociology at the University of Southern California before shifting to the University of Colorado Boulder
According to the couple, their first year passed without incident. Prakash received grants and funding, while Bhattacheryya’s research on marital rape was well received. Then came the episode involving reheating food — and, Prakash told The Indian Express, everything changed overnight.
The couple returned to India in January this year.
Curated by Aisha Patel
