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Palak paneer, ‘bad smell’, a $200,000 settlement, plus Master's degree: Indian couple's racism fight
A US university agreed to pay an Indian couple $200,000 and award them Master's degrees in a racism case that was sparked by ‘palak paneer’.
On September 5, 2023, roughly a year after joining the University of Colorado Boulder's Anthropology Department as a PhD student, Aditya Prakash was warming up his lunch - palak paneer - in a departmental microwave, without any idea that this routine act would turn into an incident he describes as racist.
Without warning, he says, a staff member approached the 34-year-old, objected to the "smell," and instructed him not to use the microwave to heat his food, Indian Express reported. According to Prakash, the staffer described the smell as pungent.
Prakash says he did not lose his calm. Instead, he responded firmly, saying, “It's just food. I'm heating and leaving.” The episode, however, did not end there.
How palak paneer led to a $200,000 payout
In September 2025, after a civil rights lawsuit, the University of Colorado Boulder reached a settlement with Prakash and his partner, Urmi Bhattacheryya, who is also a PhD student.
The university agreed to pay them $200,000 and award them Master's degrees, while simultaneously barring both from any future enrolment or employment at the institution. This month, the couple permanently returned to India.
Speaking about what he calls "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 in the United States district court for Colorado, the two alleged that after Prakash flagged concerns over "discriminatory treatment," the university “engaged in a pattern of escalating retaliation.”
‘Discriminatory impact on South Asians’
The lawsuit also pointed to a departmental kitchen policy that had a "disproportionate and discriminatory impact on ethnic groups like South Asians," noting that it left many Indians hesitant to open their lunchboxes in shared spaces. Prakash and Bhattacheryya said the "discriminatory treatment and ongoing retaliation" resulted in "emotional distress, mental anguish, and pain and suffering."
“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,” Indian Express quoted University spokesperson Deborah Mendez-Wilson's statement.
At the time of the food-heating incident, Prakash says he was a fully funded PhD candidate. As part of what he describes as "harassment," he alleges that he was repeatedly called into meetings with senior faculty, accused of making "the staff feel unsafe," and reported to the Office of Student Conduct.
Bhattacheryya alleges that she lost her teaching assistant position without any prior notice or explanation. She also says that when she and three other students brought Indian food to campus two days after the incident, they were accused of "inciting a riot."
According to Bhattacheryya, these complaints were later dismissed by the Office of Student Conduct.
