Kerala to be Keralam: Union Cabinet approves proposal to rename state

The Union Cabinet approved the renaming of Kerala to Keralam on Tuesday. The move, which was endorsed by the Kerala Assembly, is finally set to be fulfilled.

The Assembly has passed the resolutions in 2023 and 2024 urging the union government amend the name of the state in the constitution.

Both resolutions were moved by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Kerala BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar had also written to the CM last month to express the party’s support for the move.

The move is being made under Article 3 of the Constitution, which allows states to alter names.

The resolution argues that the the name of the state is ‘Keralam’ in the the Malayalam language. It also says that the states were reorganised on linguistic lines on November 1, 1956, which is observed as Kerala Piravi (Kerala Formation Day).

“The name of our State is 'Keralam' in Malayalam Language. States were formed on the basis of language on the 1st day of November, 1956. The Kerala Piravi Day is also on the 1st day of November. Since the time of National Independence Struggle, there has been a strong demand for the formation of United Kerala for the people speaking the Malayalam language. But in the First Schedule to the Constitution the name of our State is recorded as 'Kerala'. This Assembly unanimously appeal to the Central Government to take urgent steps as per Article 3 of the Constitution for modifying the name as 'Keralam'," the bill read.

The CM also explained why the resolution had to be moved a second time. In the first resolution the the changes sought only applied to the Eighth schedule of the Constitution. A fresh resolution was adopted to address the discrepancy and apply the changes also to  the First schedule of the constitution.