Kamal Ghorui
The Union Cabinet today approved a proposal to change the name of the State of Kerala to ‘Keralam,’ initiating the constitutional process required for the alteration, ddnews reported.
As per the reports, the decision was taken at a meeting that was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The President of India will refer the proposed legislation, the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, to the Kerala Legislative Assembly for its views, as mandated under Article 3 of the Constitution, following the Cabinet’s approval.
However, it cannot be presented in Parliament without the approval of the President, as stated in Article 3 of the Constitution. The President must first seek the opinions of the relevant State Legislature within a specified period of time before the Bill can proceed if it involves amendments to the name, boundaries, or territory of a State.
The proposal stems from a resolution unanimously adopted by the Kerala Legislative Assembly on June 24, 2024, urging that the State be officially renamed “Keralam.” The Assembly noted that ‘Keralam’ is the name used in Malayalam and emphasised that States were reorganised on linguistic lines on November 1, 1956, a date commemorated annually as Kerala Piravi.
The proposal was examined by the Ministry of Home Affairs and cleared after consultations with the Department of Legal Affairs and the Legislative Department under the Ministry of Law and Justice. The matter was processed with the approval of Union Home Minister Amit Shah before being placed before the Cabinet.
If Parliament passes the Bill, the First Schedule of the Constitution will be amended to replace “Kerala” with “Keralam.”
Here are five other prominent renamings in recent years:
