courtesy-TV9News
During a search on Google for “India’s ugliest language”, Google’s answer to the question was “Kannada,” a language spoken by 40 million people in south India. Screenshot of the search result went viral across social media platforms leaving the Kannadigas outraged.
The web page, debtconsolidationsquad.com, from where the search result was sourced shows an error response after being mass reported by users. 15 questions and answers related to language were featured earlier on the page including “easiest language in India” and “most beautiful language in India.”
Netizens from across the nation demanded Google for an apology along with a strict action against the search result. Although the search result was changed by Google by 3pm on Thursday, screenshots went viral and criticism from several users was observed.
The Kannada and Culture Minister, Aravind Limbavali has stated to take a legal action against Google. In one of his tweets, the Minister mentioned Kannada having an individual history of over 2500 years as a language.
Kannada language has a history of its own, having come into existence as many as 2,500 years ago! It has been the pride of Kannadigas all through these two-and-a-half millennia. 1/2#Kannada
— Aravind Limbavali (@ArvindLBJP) June 3, 2021
Even one of the former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy questioned Google on being insensitive towards languages in one of his tweets.
ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ಸ್ವಾಭಿಮಾನದ ಅಲೆಗೆ @GoogleIndia @Google ಮಣಿದಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ಕ್ಷಮೆ ಕೋರಿದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು ಸಹಿಷ್ಣುಗಳು. ಆದರೆ ಅದನ್ನು ನಮ್ಮವರ ಭಾಷಾ ನಿರಭಿಮಾನ ಎಂದು ಭಾವಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕಾಗಿಲ್ಲ. ಸಿಡಿದು ನಿಲ್ಲುವುದು, ತಪ್ಪಿನ ವಿರುದ್ಧ ಪ್ರತಿರೋಧ ತೋರುವುದು ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ಚಾರಿತ್ರಿಕ ಗುಣ. ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರ ಒಗ್ಗಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಅಗಾಧ ಶಕ್ತಿಯೂ ಇದೆ. pic.twitter.com/NMfGw1MpTE
— H D Kumaraswamy (@hd_kumaraswamy) June 3, 2021
PC Mohan, an Indian Politician also tweeted about Kannada being a home to the great kingdom of Vijayanagar Empire which has a glorious legacy and a unique culture. He also mentioned that great scholars practiced Kannadiga as a language and had written epics much before Geoffrey Chaucer. He also demanded for an apology later in the tweet.
Home to the great Vijayanagara Empire, #Kannada language has a rich heritage, a glorious legacy and a unique culture. One of the world’s oldest languages Kannada had great scholars who wrote epics much before Geoffrey Chaucer was born in the 14th century. Apologise @GoogleIndia. pic.twitter.com/Xie927D0mf
— P C Mohan (@PCMohanMP) June 3, 2021
According to a Google spokesperson the Google search results are not always perfect, sometimes surprising results to specific queries can be described on the internet.