Kerala to Be Officially Known as Keralam After Centre Clears Proposal

New Delhi, February 24, 2026: The Union Cabinet has approved a proposal to officially rename the state of Kerala as Keralam. The decision follows repeated resolutions passed by the state government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and marks a significant administrative change ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections.

The push to adopt the name Keralam has been ongoing for the past few years. In 2023 and again in 2024, the Kerala Legislative Assembly unanimously passed a resolution requesting the Centre to amend the state’s name under Article 3 of the Constitution of India.

The first proposal was returned by the Union Home Ministry for technical modifications. After incorporating the suggested corrections, the Assembly passed the resolution once more and resubmitted it for approval.

In Malayalam, the state has always been referred to as Keralam. State leaders argued that since linguistic identity was the basis for state reorganisation in 1956, the official name should reflect the native pronunciation.

Kerala was formed on November 1, 1956, a date commemorated annually asi Kerala Pirav. Advocates of the change have long maintained that aligning the constitutional name with the Malayalam version would better represent the state’s cultural and linguistic heritage.

The timing of the decision is noteworthy, as Assembly election dates are expected to be announced soon by the Election Commission of India. The demand for renaming has received backing not only from the ruling Left government in the state but also from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has previously advocated restoring traditional names to several cities and states across the country.

With Cabinet approval in place, the constitutional process to amend the First Schedule will move forward under Article 3. Once completed, the state will be officially referred to as Keralam in all languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

The change reflects a broader trend of revisiting place names to align them more closely with historical, cultural, or linguistic identities.