Why does Kerala government want to change the state’s name?

Kerala may soon get a new name. A resolution moved by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala Assembly to rename the southern state was unanimously passed on Wednesday (9 August). The House also sought an amendment in the Constitution where the state is referred to as Kerala.

What is the new name proposed by Kerala Assembly for the state? Why does the state government want to change the name? We explain.

What can be Kerala’s new name?

The Legislative Assembly has proposed to change the state’s official name from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam.’

As per NDTV, the House has urged the Central government to take “immediate steps” to amend the name under Article 3 of the Constitution that pertains to the formation of states and any alterations to areas, boundaries or names of existing States.

The resolution was presented in the Assembly by Vijayan under Rule 118 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, reported The Hindu.

“A resolution under Rule 118 is being moved in this House requesting the Central Government to change the official name of our state to ‘Keralam’ in all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India,” the chief minister was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Kerala CM Pinarayi said in the Assembly today, “A resolution under Rule 118 is being moved in this House requesting the Central Government to change the official name of our state to ‘Keralam’ in all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.”

(Pic -… pic.twitter.com/UeqyY4NLKz

— ANI (@ANI) August 9, 2023

What’s behind the name change?

While tabling the resolution, Vijayan argued that Keralam is the accepted usage in Malayalam, while in other languages it is referred to as Kerala.

“The name of our state in Malayalam is Keralam. States were formed on linguistic lines in the country on 1 November 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,” Hindustan Times (HT) quoted the chief minister as saying.

“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.

According to NDTV, the First Schedule of the Constitution enumerates the states and Union Territories and their territorial jurisdictions, while Eighth Schedule lists the 22 official languages of India.

The resolution, as cited by The Hindu, called for “urgent measures” under Article 3 of the Constitution, to amend the name of the state to ‘Keralam’.

After no objection from the Opposition United Democratic Front alliance led by Congress, Speaker AN Shamseer declared the unanimous adoption of the resolution.

How Kerala came to be

According to a Deccan Herald report, the United State of Travancore and Cochin was created by merging two erstwhile princely states of Travancore and Cochin on 1 July 1949. The next year in January, it was renamed the State of Travancore-Cochin.

In 1956, the Malabar Coast of Madras state (now Tamil Nadu) and the Kasargod taluka (administrative subdivision) of South Kanara were added to Travancore-Cochin to form the present state of Kerala, noted Britannica.

Recent name changes

The West Bengal government wants to rename the state to ‘Bangla’ in all three languages – Bengali, English and Hindi. Last July, the Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament it has received a proposal from the Mamata Banerjee-led government in this regard.

In 2011, Orissa had become Odisha and the name of its language was changed from Oriya to Odia as the Orissa (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2010 and the Constitution (113th Amendment) Bill, 2010 was passed in Parliament.

It is not only states but several cities have also been renamed in the last few years or so.

The name of the ‘Rajahmundry’ city in Andhra Pradesh was amended to ‘Rajamahendravaram’ in 2017.
‘Nagar Untari’, a town in Jharkhand, became Shri Banshidhar Nagar in 2018. The same year, the city of ‘Allahabad’ in Uttar Pradesh was renamed ‘Prayagraj’.

In 2021, the name of Madhya Pradesh’s ‘Hoshangabad Nagar’ city was changed to ‘Narmadapuram’ and ‘Babai’ city became ‘Makhan Nagar’.

‘Shri Hargobindpur’ city in Punjab was renamed to ‘Shri Hargobindpur Sahib’ in March last year, as per NDTV.

With inputs from agencies