Kerala is now Keralam, but Shashi Tharoor has a question: What happens to ‘Keralite’, 'Keralan'?

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to change the name of Kerala to Keralam, prompting a witty reaction from Shashi Tharoor, the Member of Parliament from Thiruvananthapuram, who quipped: “What happens to terms Keralite, Keralan?”

Senior Congress leader Tharoor responded to the change with a pun, wondering what Anglophones would now call people living in the southern state.

“All to the good, no doubt, but a small linguistic question for the Anglophones among us: what happens now to the terms ‘Keralite’ and ‘Keralan’ for the denizens of the new ‘Keralam’? ‘Keralamite’ sounds like a microbe and ‘Keralamian’ like a rare earth mineral…! @CMOKerala might want to launch a competition for new terms resulting from this electoral zeal,” Tharoor made the remark in a post on X while sharing Mint’s report on the renaming.

The state assembly passed a resolution to change the name in official records just ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.

According to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, after the Union Cabinet’s approval, the President of India will refer a Bill—titled the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026—to the Kerala Legislative Assembly for its views under the proviso to Article 3 of the Constitution of India.

What happens next in the process?

Once the Kerala Legislative Assembly’s feedback is received, the central government will seek the President’s formal recommendation to introduce the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 in Parliament, according to an official statement.

The Kerala Legislative Assembly had earlier adopted a resolution on 24 June 2024 seeking to officially change the name of the state to “Keralam”.

Subsequently, the state leadership approached the central government to initiate the required procedure to amend the First Schedule of the Constitution under Article 3, replacing “Kerala” with “Keralam”.

What did the Assembly resolution say?

“The name of our State is ‘Keralam’ in the Malayalam language. States were formed on the basis of language on the 1st day of November, 1956. Kerala Piravi Day is also on the 1st day of November,” the resolution stated.

“Since the time of the National Independence Struggle, there has been a strong demand for the formation of a united Kerala for Malayalam-speaking people. However, in the First Schedule to the Constitution, the name of our State is recorded as ‘Kerala’. This Assembly unanimously appeals to the Central Government to take urgent steps as per Article 3 of the Constitution to modify the name as ‘Keralam’,” it added.