Kerala Assembly Once Again Passes Resolution To Urge Centre To Rename State As ‘Keralam’

A resolution was unanimously adopted on Monday by the Kerala assembly, urging the Centre to officially change the state's name to "Keralam". Notably, the House passed the resolution for the second time as the Union Home Ministry, which reviewed the first resolution, had suggested some technical changes. According to the resolution, the assembly has asked the Centre to change the state's name from "Kerala" as listed in the First Schedule of the Constitution to "Keralam".

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan moved the resolution and it was accepted by both Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) members.

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Last year in August, the assembly, in the ninth session of the 15th legislative assembly - passed a similar resolution seeking the change in the First as well as Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The Union Home Ministry had returned it, saying that the change needed to be made only in the First Schedule.

While introducing the resolution, the Chief Minister had highlighted that the state is called ‘Keralam’ in Malayalam, its official language, but ‘Kerala’ in other languages. He stated that this was inconsistent with the historical and cultural identity of the Malayalam-speaking people, who had fought for a unified Kerala during the freedom movement.

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CM Pinarayi Vijayan said, “But the name of our state is written as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This assembly unanimously requests the Union government to take immediate steps to amend it as ‘Keralam’ under Article 3 of the Constitution and it be renamed as ‘Keralam’ in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.”