Union Cabinet Approves Kerala’s Name Change to Keralam

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday is understood to have approved the Kerala government’s proposal to rename the state as Keralam, sources said. The decision comes ahead of the Kerala assembly elections, expected to be held in April-May this year.

The proposal traces its roots back to the Kerala Assembly, which had unanimously passed a resolution on June 24, 2024, urging the Centre to officially change the state’s name to Keralam. Following the Assembly’s recommendation, the Union Cabinet, in a meeting held at the newly inaugurated Seva Teerth, the Prime Minister’s new office building, is reported to have given its nod to the change.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who had moved the resolution in the Assembly, emphasised that the state is called Keralam in Malayalam. He noted that the demand for a united Kerala for Malayalam-speaking communities had been strong since the freedom struggle, but the name remained Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution.

The Chief Minister had requested that the state’s name be updated to Keralam in all languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, and that the Centre take immediate steps to amend it under Article 3 of the Constitution.

This marks the second time the Kerala Assembly passed a resolution seeking the name change. A similar unanimous resolution was passed in August 2023, but the Ministry of Home Affairs had suggested technical revisions before it could be forwarded to the Union Cabinet.

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