Will Kerala soon have a new name? Resolution adopted by assembly

A motion urging the Center to formally rename the state “Keralam” was unanimously approved by the Kerala assembly today. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan proposed the motion and requested that the name of the state be changed to “Keralam” in all languages included in the Constitution of India’s Eighth Schedule. The resolution was adopted by the UDF opposition led by Congress, which made no changes or alterations to it. On the basis of a show of hands, Speaker AN Shamseer then pronounced it to have been unanimously approved by the entire legislature. When introducing the resolution, the chief minister noted that although the state is referred to as “Keralam” in Malayalam, it is still known as Kerala in other languages.

Since the national freedom war, he claimed, the necessity for the Malayalam-speaking groups to unite as one Kerala has grown significantly. But in the First Schedule of the Constitution, our state’s name is listed as Kerala. This Assembly, he said, “unanimously requests the Union Government to take prompt action to amend it as “Keralam” under Article 3 of the Constitution and to rename it as “Keralam” in all the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.”