Union Cabinet approves renaming Kerala as ‘Keralam’

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the proposal for alteration of the name of state of ‘Kerala’ as ‘Keralam’ on February 24.

Why Kerala is changed to Keralam?

• The decision marks the culmination of a long process through which Kerala sought to align its official name with how the state has always been known in its own language.

• In August 2023 and June 2024, Kerala Legislative Assembly adopted resolutions urging the Centre to amend the First Schedule of the Constitution and rename the state as Keralam.

• Presenting the resolution, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state was called ‘Keralam' in Malayalam, but in other languages it was still Kerala.

• The resolution urged the central government to make amendments necessary under Article 3 of the Constitution to change the state’s name to ‘Keralam’ in all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

• Under the First Schedule of the Constitution, the state’s name was recorded as Kerala.

• Kerala Legislative Assembly passed the resolution for a second time after the Union Home Ministry suggested technical changes to the first proposal.

• The matter regarding alteration of the name of state of ‘Kerala’ as ‘Keralam’ was considered in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

• With the approval of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the draft note for the Cabinet for the alteration of name was circulated to the Department of Legal Affairs and Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice for their comments.

• The Department of Legal Affairs and Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice have concurred with the proposal for the alteration of the name of state of ‘Kerala’ as ‘Keralam’.

Article 3 and changing name of a state

• Article 3 of the Constitution deals with the formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states.

It states that:

Parliament may by law—

(a) form a new State by separation of territory from any State or by uniting two or more States or parts of States or by uniting any territory to a part of any State;

(b) increase the area of any State;

(d) alter the boundaries of any State;

(e) alter the name of any State:

• However, a Bill to this effect can only be introduced in the Parliament on prior recommendation of the President. The President can only make such a recommendation after obtaining the views of the state legislature on the proposals in the Bill.

What is the next step for Kerala's name change?

• After approval of the Union Cabinet, the President of India will refer a Bill, namely the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 to the State Legislative Assembly of Kerala for expressing its views under proviso to Article 3 of the Constitution.

• After receipt of the views of the State Legislative Assembly, the government of India will take further action and the recommendation of President will be obtained for introduction of the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 for alteration of name of state of ‘Kerala’ as ‘Keralam’ in Parliament.

Names of states changed in the past

• In 2006, Centre approved changing Uttaranchal’s name to Uttarakhand.

• In 2011, Orissa’s name was changed to Odisha and the language became Odia from Oriya.

• In 1950, United Provinces was renamed as Uttar Pradesh. On January 24, 1950, the governor-general of India passed United Provinces (Alteration of Name) Order 1950, renaming United Provinces as Uttar Pradesh.

Request for renaming rejected by the Centre

• In July 2018, the West Bengal Assembly passed a resolution to change the name of the state to ‘Bangla’ in the three most-spoken languages — Bengali, Hindi and English — and had sent the proposal to the ministry of home affairs.

• It suggested ‘Paschimbanga’ in 2011, but it was turned down by the central government.

• In 2016, it proposed ‘Bengal’ in English, ‘Bangla’ in Bengali and ‘Bangal’ in Hindi, which was also turned down.

• When the earlier proposals were received, there was an objection from the central government that suggested the name ‘Bangla’ had similarity to Bangladesh and it would be difficult to differentiate the two at international forums.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)