The Kerala Assembly unanimously passed a second resolution on Monday asking the Centre to officially change the state's name to 'Keralam', nearly a year after it unanimously passed a similar resolution before the Centre returned it for corrections.
The resolution will be sent to the Union government for approval. In August last year, the Union Home Ministry reviewed the last resolution and suggested some technical changes after the Kerala government sought “immediate steps” to change the state's name.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan proposed the resolution asking the union government to change the state's name in all the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Read Here: Any move to rename nation against the constitution, says Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan
While presenting the resolution, the Vijayan said that the state has been called ‘Keralam’ in Malayalam and the demand for a united Kerala for Malayalam speakers has been strong since 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,” PTI quoted Vijayan saying.
{{/usCountry}}“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,” PTI quoted Vijayan saying.
{{/usCountry}}Members of both the ruling LDF and the opposition UDF supported the resolution. UDF legislator N Shamsudeen suggested some changes, but the government rejected them. Speaker A N Shamseer announced that the assembly then unanimously adopted the resolution.
Over a hundred cities and several states have changed their names in India since independence. Uttaranchal became Uttarakhand in 2007, honouring the Uttarakhand Andolan movement that led to the state's separation from Uttar Pradesh in 2000. Orissa was renamed Odisha in 2011, following the Orissa (Alteration of Name) Act. In 2006, the Union Territory of Pondicherry became Puducherry. Some capital cities whose names were changed are Bombay, which was renamed Mumbai, and Madras, which became Chennai.
West Bengal has also been seeking a name change to Bangla, which would move it up in the alphabetical listing of Indian states.