Now Reading: Parliament passes Bill to rename Kerala as Keralam
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Parliament passes Bill to rename Kerala as Keralam
Parliament has passed the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, renaming the state as Keralam. The Rajya Sabha cleared it on Monday after the Lok Sabha passed it a day earlier. The…
The Story in Brief
Parliament has passed the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026, renaming the state as Keralam. The Rajya Sabha cleared it on Monday after the Lok Sabha passed it a day earlier. The bill, introduced by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, amends the First Schedule of the Constitution to change the name.
The Kerala Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution in 2024 requesting the name change. After the President referred the bill to the state legislature in February 2026, the Assembly approved it again in July. The government says the change aligns with local Malayalam usage and removes a symbol of colonial legacy.
The Indian Opinion
The renaming of Kerala to Keralam has been painted by the government as shedding a colonial symbol, but the state assembly had sought this change for decades, not as an anti-colonial move but to match Malayalam pronunciation. The Union minister dragged in an unrelated Savarkar controversy, needlessly polarising a procedural matter. The real test will come when official documents must be reprinted and databases updated. Will the change happen within a year, or will it linger like other renamings?
Sources (3): timesnownews.com, ndtv.com, livelaw.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above.
