Explained: Why is Kerala demanding to change its name to Keralam?

Kerala has been demanding to change its name to Keralam for a while. The state assembly on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to officially change the state's name to ‘Keralam'. It was the second time that the state assembly passed a resolution demanding a change in the name of the state. This is because, for the first time, the Union Home Ministry suggested some technical changes after reviewing the first resolution.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan moved the resolution for the same seeking the union government to change the name in all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Moving the resolution, the CM said the state was called ‘Keralam' in Malayalam and that the demand to form a united Kerala for the Malayalam-speaking communities had strongly emerged since the time of the national freedom struggle. 

“But the name of our state is written as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This Assembly requests the Centre to take immediate steps to amend it as ‘Keralam' under Article 3 of the Constitution and have it renamed as ‘Keralam' in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution,” Vijayan said.

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The House had passed a similar unanimous resolution in August last year and submitted it to the Centre, but the Union Home Ministry suggested some technical changes in it, Assembly Secretariat sources said. 

After the presentation, the CM also said further examinations demanded some changes in the earlier resolution. The resolution was accepted by both the members of the ruling LDF and the opposition Congress-led UDF. UDF legislator N Shamsudeen suggested some amendments to modify the structure of the resolution, which were rejected by the government later. Subsequently, it was declared unanimously adopted by the assembly by Speaker A N Shamseer.

(With inputs from PTI)