NEW DELHI — The southern Indian state of Kerala has officially been renamed Keralam following formal presidential assent from President Droupadi Murmu.
The President signed the “Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026” on August 17, completing the parliamentary process to enact the name change into law.
Aligning Official Status with Linguistic Roots
The legislative change follows a unanimous resolution passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly in June 2024, which requested the central government to align the state’s official designation with its name in the native Malayalam language.
While “Kerala” served as the official English name since Indian independence, local residents and Malayalam literature have traditionally used “Keralam”.
“The Bill provides that the State of Kerala will be known as the State of Keralam, bringing the official name in line with its linguistic and cultural identity,” stated Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai during parliamentary proceedings.
Constitutional Amendments and Legislative Process
Following the initial 2024 resolution, the central government referred the proposal back to the state legislature for formal views before introducing the bill in Parliament. The Lok Sabha passed the legislation on August 11, followed by Rajya Sabha clearance on August 12.
Under the newly enacted law, amendments will be made to the First Schedule of the Constitution of India under Article 3 to replace all official occurrences of “Kerala” with “Keralam”.
The central government will issue an official gazette notification to mark the formal effective date for the transition across all legal, judicial, and administrative records.
