Kerala to become 'Keralam'?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Government today said it would look into demands for changing the official spelling of "Kerala" to " Keralam", the way it is written and pronounced in Malayalam, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan informed the state Assembly.

He, however, said a decision would be taken only after evolving a consensus through discussions with experts.

Responding to Babu M Palissery (CPI-M), who raised the issue as a submission, he said there had been demands from various quarters to change official spelling of "Kerala" to "Keralam". They had reinforced their argument by citing instances like changing the name of "Bombay" into "Mumbai."

Palissery pointed out that colonial spelling of places like "Trichur" had already been changed to "Thrissur" and "Calicut" to "Kozhikode so there was no justification in delaying correcting the official spelling of the state itself into "Keralam", which means "land of Keras" (coconut trees).

There was a committee headed by Revenue Minister K P Rajendran to consider the issue of changing the names of places in the state. The usual practice was that before finalising the change, it would be discussed with experts and others concerned.