Kerala Assembly adopts resolution urging Centre to change name to ‘Keralam’

The Kerala Assembly on Wednesday unanimously adopted a resolution requesting the Centre to change the official name of the state from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam’ in all languages.

The resolution was tabled in the House by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and passed by all members unanimously.

While presenting the resolution, the CM said, “The name of our state in Malayalam is Keralam. States were formed on linguistic lines in the country on November 1, 1956. The Kerala formation day is on the same day. It was a demand during the freedom struggle to form a united Kerala state for all Malayalam speaking people.”

“But under the first Schedule of the Constitution, the name of our state was recorded as Kerala. The Assembly unanimously requests the central government to make necessary amendments to change the official name of the state to ‘Keralam’ in all official languages under the Eighth schedule of the Constitution,” he added.

While a state government can only make a request for change in the name of the state, the actual process requires parliamentary approval under Article 3 and 4 of the Constitution with the President referring the issue to the relevant state legislature. In the past, the name of Orissa state was changed to Odisha and the name of its language from Oriya to Odia.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state spokesperson TP Sindhumol said the party agrees with the idea that the name should be ‘Keralam’. “Keralam is how we say and use in our mother tongue Malayalam. So yes, the state’s official name should be Keralam. At the same time, the LDF and UDF should also install a statue of Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, the father of modern Malayalam, at his birthplace Tirur. They have still not done it,” she said.