I haven't been watching the programme, but have picked up bits & pieces from the news and the newspapers. The behaviour is definitely prejudicial and discriminatory, but whilst there are some racist undertones, I think the main source of their prejudice is class and education.
On the one side, you have a beautiful, intelligent, talented, well-educated high-achiever (who happens to be Indian) and three ugly, thick-as-pigshit, talentless and uneducated morons (who happen to be English).
"They eat with their hands, don't they...Or is that the Chinese?. You don't know where her fingers have been."
Well, make you mind up, is it Indians or Chinese? Oh yeah, and you've never eaten a KFC bargain bucket with your fingers, have you, Jo?
"She should try living in a slum!"
What, like Bermondsey, Jade?
"She can't even speak English properly."
Well, leaving the fact that Shilpa isn't English on one side for a moment, let's also avoid the obvious opportunity to mock your scouse accent and instead ask you, Danielle, how fluent you are in Hindi, Gujarati, Tulu, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi....oh, yes, and French?