Kerala Renaming Row: The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to change Kerala’s name to Keralam, prompting Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor to quip: “What will happen to terms like Keralite and Keralan?”
Tharoor, a senior Congress leader, responded to the change with a joke, wondering what Anglophones would now call people living in the southern state.
“This is all good, no doubt, but there’s a small linguistic question for the Anglophones among us: what will happen to the words ‘Keralite’ and ‘Keralaan’ for the inhabitants of the new ‘Keralaam’? ‘Keralamite’ sounds like a microbe, and ‘Keralamian’ sounds like a rare earth mineral…! @CMOKerala might want to start a competition for new words born out of this election fervor,” Tharoor said in a post on X, sharing a Mint report on the name change.
The state assembly passed the proposal to change the name in official records just before the state assembly elections.
According to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, after the Union Cabinet’s approval, the President of India will send a bill, titled the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, to the Kerala Assembly for its opinion under the provisions of Article 3 of the Constitution of India.
What will happen next in this process?
According to an official statement, after receiving feedback from the Kerala Legislative Assembly, the central government will seek a formal recommendation from the President to introduce the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 in Parliament.
The Kerala Legislative Assembly had previously passed a resolution on June 24, 2024, demanding the official change of the state’s name to “Keralaam.”
Subsequently, the state leadership approached the central government to initiate the necessary process to amend the First Schedule of the Constitution under Article 3, replacing “Kerala” with “Keralalam.”
What did the Assembly resolution say? The resolution stated, “The name of our state is ‘Keralaam’ in the Malayalam language. The linguistically based states were formed on November 1, 1956. Kerala Piravi Day is also celebrated on November 1.”
It further said, “Since the time of the national independence struggle, there has been a strong demand for a united Kerala for the Malayalam-speaking people. However, the name of our state is listed as ‘Kerala’ in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This Assembly unanimously appeals to the Central Government to take immediate steps to change the name to ‘Kerala’ in accordance with Article 3 of the Constitution.”
(With inputs from agency)