Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution to change the name of the state from Kerala to Keralam. The resolution was tabled by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and was supported by the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front alliance. The members raised their hands to show their support to the resolution which was then declared unanimously adopted by Speaker AN Shamseer.
Keralam is the traditional name of the state. It is referred to as the same in Malayalam, and this was pointed out by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who moved the resolution to rename the state and said, “The name of our state is Keralam in the Malayalam language. However, the name of our state is listed as Kerala in the First Schedule of the Constitution. This Assembly unanimously requests the Union Government to take immediate steps to amend it to ‘Keralam’ under Article 3 of the Constitution. This House also requests that our state be renamed as ‘Keralam’ in all the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution”.
The First Schedule of the Constitution lists the states and Union Territories and their territorial jurisdictions, while the Eighth Schedule lists the 22 official languages of India.
Incidentally, the move to rename the state by the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government also got support from the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has also renamed its official Twitter account as ‘BJPKERALAM’.
Meanwhile, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, Kerala is first mentioned as ‘Keralaputra’ in a 3rd-century-BCE rock inscription left by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka.
– global bihari bureau
