US-based search engine giant Google issued an apology to the Kannadiga community of India after searches on its website flagged up their regional language, Kannada, as being India’s “ugliest language”.
The finding erupted earlier this week, offending the Kannadiga community which is based mainly in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.
Google removed the result from the web, and added in its apology the fact that “search results are not always perfect”.
The American giant's regrets were inspired by a severe backlash from the Indian community.
Hardanahalli Devegowda Kumaraswamy, Karnataka's former state chief, took to Twitter to criticise Google for its “irresponsible” behaviour that showed disrespect to a language whose origins reach back at least 2,500 years.
"Is it impossible for Google to curb such hatred against any language?" he asked.
Other BJP leaders such as P.C. Mohan and CT Ravi also leapt to the Indian language's defence, demanding an apology from Google.
The result is no longer visible on Google when “ugliest language in India” is put in the search bar, save from the headlines to the stories which have been generated by the controversy.
In 2018, an Indian media report citing the census said that more than 19,500 languages or dialects are spoken in India, most of them unofficially.
The 121 official languages belong to one of two types — those that are included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, making up 22 languages; and those not included in the Eighth Schedule, comprising 99 languages.
The 22 languages of the Eighth Schedule are: Kannada, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.