English
Kumar Utkarsh
Kumar Utkarsh is a journalist, technology observer, and cricket enthusiast with over three years of experience in the media industry. Currently serving as a Sub-Editor at India Dot Com English, he cov ... Read More
India’s Cabinet has passed a resolution to change Kerala’s name to “Keralam”. With the approval of the Union Cabinet (the Indian government), the renaming request from Kerala’s state assembly will now be sent to Parliament.
A Bill will be introduced in Parliament to give effect to the decision to rename the state and change “Kerala” to “Keralam” in the First Schedule of the Constitution.
This isn’t the first time India has seen name changes for its states, whether it be North-Central state Uttar Pradesh or linguistically-connotative West Bengal. With India preparing for another name change in 2026, DW maps the changing names of several Indian states.
It would be normal if people were surprised by the announcement. But India has seen its fair share of name changes, especially after the country gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. A large number of these state name changes came with India adopting linguistic states in the country. States were named after the local language spoken by people in the region.
For example, in Tamil Nadu, the state’s official name was formerly known as the Madras State. Tamil Nadu Govt officially changed the state’s name to Tamil Nadu in 1969 to honor the state’s official language Tamil. In Karnataka, the state was previously referred to as Mysore State until it was changed to Karnataka to reflect the local Kannada language.
Here is the full list of states which changed their names:
1950: United Provinces officially becomes Uttar Pradesh
1950: Madhya Pradesh state is renamed Central Provinces and Berar
1950: Punjab’s official name is changed to East Punjab
1956: Travancore-Cochin changed the official name of the state to Kerala
1969: Madras State is renamed Tamil Nadu
1973: Mysore state officially becomes Karnataka
2007: Uttaranchal is renamed Uttarakhand
2011: Orissa is renamed Odisha
After the announcement was made by the Indian government, comments were soon made by leaders in West Bengal demanding the state government change the name of the state to its Bengali language version “Bangla.”
Recently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the central government was yet to respond to the state assembly’s call to rename the state. BJP opposed the claims made by Banerjee stating that the central government had in fact cleared the proposal.
According to the protocols of the Indian constitution, Article 3 of the constitution states that a change to the name of a state will only take effect after the bill amending the name of the state is passed by Parliament.
Only after Parliament approves the bill to change Kerala’s name to Keralam will the name of Kerala officially be changed in the constitution.
For breaking news and live news updates, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Read more on Latest India News on India.com.