Bengaluru: Kerala, popularly known as ‘God’s own country’ has been renamed Keralam—a move meant to emphasise its historical, cultural and linguistic heritage. On Tuesday, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal to alter the southern state’s name.
The word ‘Keralam’ is a combination of two words—‘kera’ means coconut in Malayalam. while ‘alam’ or ‘ilam’ means land of origin. Together, the two words literally mean ‘land of coconuts’.
Shaji A., professor of History at University of Kerala told ThePrint that ‘Kerala’ is the colonial-era spelling that became part of official records, while ‘Keralam’ is the pronunciation of the state’s name in the local language.
“The British could not pronounce spellings with names ending with ‘m’ or ‘n’, and they changed this as per their convenience. But in Malayalam, it has always been Keralam,” he said, adding that although nomenclature is different, the meaning remains the same.
“What is implied is that we are shifting the word from British colonial connotation to Malayalam linguistic connotation,” said Dr K.N.Ganesh, a historian involved with the Kerala Council of Historical Research.
Though most experts say there is no objection to the change of name by the Vijayan government, Congress’s Shashi Tharoor posed a tricky question on X. “All to the good, no doubt, but a small linguistic question for the Anglophones among us: what happens now to the terms ‘Keralite’ and ‘Keralan’ for the denizens of the new ‘Keralam’? ‘Keralamite’ sounds like a microbe and ‘Keralamian’ like a rare earth mineral…! @CMOKerala might want to launch a competition for new terms resulting from this electoral zeal,” the Thiruvananthapuram MP wrote.
The Centre’s approval comes over a year and a half after the Pinarayi Vijayan-led state government had passed a resolution on 24 June, 2024 to alter the name of the State of “Kerala” to “Keralam”.
“After approval of Union Cabinet, the President of India will refer a Bill, namely the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 to the State Legislative Assembly of Kerala for expressing its views under proviso to article 3 of the Constitution of India. After receipt of the views of the State Legislative Assembly of Kerala, Government of India will take further action and the recommendation of President will be obtained for introduction of the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 for alteration of name of State of ‘Kerala’ as ‘Keralam’ in Parliament,” the government statement read Tuesday.
In its 2024 resolution, Kerala government had said that the state was formed on 1 November in 1956 and that the Kerala Piravi Day is also celebrated on the 1st.
“Since the time of National Independence Struggle, there has been a strong demand for the formation of United Kerala for the people speaking Malayalam language. But in the First Schedule to the Constitution the name of our State is recorded as ‘Kerala’. This Assembly unanimously appeal(ed) to the Central Government to take urgent steps as per Article 3 of the Constitution for modifying the name as ‘Keralam’,” the state government said in the resolution.
The approval of the name change comes ahead of the assembly elections in the southern state.
British connotation to linguistic connotation
Before this, several other states in India that have opted to change their names by shedding the anglicised nomenclature used since Independence, to ones that reflect their historical significance more accurately. Kerala’s name change, mooted by the ruling Left and backed by its rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), follows a similar trend.
Uttaranchal was renamed Uttarakhand in 2007, while Orissa became Odisha. The erstwhile state of Mysore was renamed Karnataka in 1973. The reasons for renaming have not always been the same though.
Over the past decades, several cities have also been renamed—Bangalore became Bengaluru, Madras became Chennai, Mysore was renamed Mysuru, Bijapur to Vijayapura, and others—for reasons varying from incorporating local pronunciations and shedding colonial-era spellings, to even removing former associations with pre-1956 era boundaries.
Renaming of cities and places has also been common under the Modi government and in BJP-ruled states, in a bid to remove colonial or Mughal-era references. For instance, Allahabad is now Prayagraj, and Aurangabad is Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. Rashtrapathi Bhavan’s Mughal Gardens have been renamed Amrit Udyan.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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