The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved a proposal to rename the state of Kerala as ‘Keralam’. The move comes after resolutions were passed by the Kerala Assembly seeking the name change under Article 3 of the Constitution of India.
Following the Cabinet’s approval, the President of India will refer the proposed Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, to the Kerala Legislative Assembly to seek its views, as required under the Constitution. Once the Assembly’s opinion is received, the Centre will take further steps and seek the President’s recommendation to introduce the Bill in Parliament for officially changing the name from ‘Kerala’ to ‘Keralam’.
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Why the name change suddenly?
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had moved resolutions in 2023 and 2024 to change the state’s name in all languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The Assembly passed the resolution twice after the Union Home Ministry suggested certain technical modifications to the first proposal.
In the resolution, the state government argued that “Keralam” is the name of the state in Malayalam. It pointed out that states were reorganised on linguistic lines on November 1, 1956, which is also celebrated as Kerala Piravi Day. The resolution stated that despite a long-standing demand during the freedom movement for a united Malayalam-speaking region, the First Schedule of the Constitution still records the state’s name as “Kerala.” The Assembly urged the Centre to take urgent steps under Article 3 to amend it to “Keralam.”
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The development comes ahead of the state Assembly elections, though the Election Commission of India has not yet announced poll dates.
The idea of renaming Kerala as ‘Keralam’ had also been suggested earlier. In 2016, when Gurgaon was renamed Gurugram as a tribute to Guru Dronacharya from the Mahabharata, the RSS had recommended renaming several cities and states, including Kerala to ‘Keralam’, Ahmedabad to ‘Amaravati’, Hyderabad to ‘Bhagyanagar’, and Aurangabad to ‘Sambhajinagar’.
