AA Edit |Keralam: What’s in a Name?

Soon, it will be Keralam and not Kerala as the world has known this small strip of land on the southwestern coast of the Indian peninsula. The Union Cabinet has approved a suggestion made to this effect by the Kerala Legislative Assembly two years ago. Since the names of the states are entered in the Constitution, it will have to go through the motions which involve seeking the opinion of the Kerala Assembly again, and then the passage of a bill in Parliament with two-thirds majority.

The state will then join the league of states that have changed their original names for a number of reasons, Odisha being the latest. Following the reorganisation of states, Mysuru became Karnataka, Madras became Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh got bifurcated and gave birth to Telangana. United Provinces got naturalised in Hindi and became Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal became Uttarakhand. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is, however, upset that her demand for changing the name of her state to Bangla has not been acceded to by the Union government yet, and Didi, as the irrepressible TMC chief is popularly known, may have to wait a bit longer for her wish to bear fruit.

Shashi Tharoor who represents Thiruvananthapuram, formerly Trivandrum, in the Lok Sabha, had raised some existential doubts about the changes “Keralam” will bring about but the local grammarians have solved them instantly. Keralites will continue to be known as Keralites, they assured the MP who doesn’t exactly follow the Keralite convention when it comes to spelling his own name. But this group even quoted Shakespeare to buttress their argument, and said that there’s nothing of merit in a name.

Historians are not unanimous on the etymology of Kerala. One school proposes that it’s named after the Chera dynasty which ruled Tamil Nadu and part of Kerala some 17 centuries ago while the other would insist that it refers to the land of Kera, or coconut, that it is known for. They all, however, agree that it’s “God’s Own Country” ruled by atheists for the most part. That’s something not amenable to change.