‘Keralamite sounds like a microbe’: Shashi Tharoor’s witty take after Cabinet clears Kerala name change

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday added a touch of humour to the Centre’s decision to rename Kerala as ‘Keralam’, wondering what residents of the state would now be called in English.

Reacting on X , Shashi Tharoor wrote: “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.”

 

 

hy the change to ‘Keralam’?

The move follows a unanimous resolution passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly in June 2024. The resolution stated that the name of the state in Malayalam is “Keralam” and that the change would better reflect its historical, linguistic and cultural identity.

It pointed out that states were reorganised on linguistic lines on November 1, 1956 — a date now observed as Kerala Piravi Day.

Since the time of the national independence movement, there has been a strong demand for a united Kerala for Malayalam-speaking people, the resolution noted.

However, while the state is referred to as “Keralam” in Malayalam, the First Schedule of the Constitution records its name as “Kerala”.

The Assembly therefore urged the Central government to take urgent steps under Article 3 of the Constitution to officially modify the name to “Keralam”

With the Cabinet’s approval, the proposal will now be referred to the President of India. A Bill titled the Kerala (Alteration of Name) Bill, 2026 will be prepared and sent to the Kerala Legislative Assembly for its views.