On February 24, 2026 the BJP-led government at the Centre approved the proposal of the CPI(M)-led regime in Kerala to change the State’s name to ‘Keralam’, the name used in the Malayalam language. Nearly 50 years ago, the Congress government did this for Tamil Nadu when the DMK regime, which came to office dislodging the national party from power, had wanted the title of the State to be changed from ‘Madras’ to Tamil Nadu.
It is common knowledge that the “moment of frisson,” as described by diplomat-turned-writer R. Kannan in his perceptive book, The DMK Years, came on July 18, 1967, about four months after the Dravidian major captured power in a sensational manner, unseating the Congress that ruled the State for 20 years. On that day, the State Assembly adopted a resolution unanimously, calling for the change in the name of the State.
But, as early as in March 1961, the Congress government informed the Legislative Council and the Assembly that it would hereafter limit, in official communication in Tamil, the usage of the name ‘Chennai’ to the capital of the State and that of ‘Tamil Nadu’ to the State. R. Venkataraman, who was the then Industries Minister in the Congress regime, had called the State “Tamizh Nadu.
