Strengthening the Official National Discourse: The Impact of the First Pahlavi Government Institutions and Organizations

The modern relics of Reza Shah created new organizations, including the National Art Association, Museum of Ancient Iran, Ancient Persia Center, Organization of the development of thoughts, Academy of the national language of Iranians, and National radio based on the discourse of authoritarian nationalism influenced by the German dialectic of Nazism, under the influence of the thinkers of this age. These institutions, in their turn, tried to act in line with the internalization of the discourse of the official nationalism of the modern authoritarian state and the Iranian national identity defined by that discourse focusing on antiquity, authoritarianism, love for Shah, modernization and emphasis on national language. The current paper tries to address the actions of these institutions in constructing the Iranian national identity based on the discourse of authoritarian romantic nationalism.

1 Professor of history at Kharazmi University. 2 Corresponding Author, Ph.D. Student in History of Post-Islam Iran, Kharazmi University.E-mail: salimihosein10@gmail.com

Introduction
Iranians, as one of the few trans-ethnic pre-modern humanist societies (Hegel, 1994, pp. 173-174), became acquainted with the notion of modern nationalism as they became acquainted with the political thought of the West in contemporary centuries.This first recognition was based on the democratic discourse proposed in the French revolution by democrats and thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Rousseau, 1979).After the failure of the constitutional movement to achieve its predetermined goals, the majority of Iranian intellectuals came to believe that before establishing any democratic government, it would be necessary to provide the intellectual, political, economic and social grounds of such a government in Iranian society.One of the most important tools in the provision of grounds was the creation of a modern authoritarian state that could strengthen the integrity of education and national identity in Iranian society through the exercise of bureaucracy and military authority.Hence, romantic authoritarian discourse, derived from the thoughts of German thinkers such as Fichte (Neuhouser, 2012, p. 892) found many supporters among Iranian thinkers during the final years of the Qajar course and the beginning of the Pahlavi course.Accordingly, and according to this discourse, Reza Shah's administration, as a modern authoritarian state, has sought to establish certain institutions and organizations as an executive arm, and by doing so, execute the process of internalizing Iran's national identity based on its official discourse among the Iranian people.National Art Association, Museum of Ancient Iran, Ancient Persia Center, Organization of the development of thoughts, Academy of the national language of Iranians, and National radio were among the institutions that were active in this regard.The current paper is an attempt to answer the question "What was the impact of the activities of some First Pahlavi administrative institutions and organizations on the strengthening of the official national discourse"?

I. National Art Association
The association started its activities in 1922 with the efforts of a group of political figures such as Hasan Pirnia, Mirza Hasan Mostofi al-Mamalek, Mohammad Ali Foroughi, Teymourtash, Arbab Keikhosrow Shahrokh, Firooz Mirza Firuz (Bahrul'alumi, 1965, p. 2) and Sardar Sepah, being the prime minister, was appointed to the Superintendent of the Association in 1923 by the Founding Board, and during the entire course of the first Pahlavi, he was always entrusted by Reza Shah.The main objective of the association was to attempt to preserve and restore the historical monuments of the "nation of Iran" with the aim of "understanding the spirituality of the religious, national, artistic and cultural heritage of the ancestors," as well as creating open arms around the ancient historical heritage, the landscape and the city's historic buildings and the lighting of these works (Mostafavi, 1965, pp. 1-2).The association may also be considered as a foundation for the construction of an Archaeological Organization, the Museum of Ancient Iran, the Museum of Fine Arts, and other organizations and institutions that have worked hard to shape Iran's modern national identity (Ibid).One of the most important activities of this Association during the reign of Reza Shah was the celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Ferdowsi's birth in 1934.Also, the congress is co-sponsored by Ferdowsi's Tomb building with the presence of such Iranian scholars as Herzfeld, Zare and his wife, professor Cohnnel Kuhnel, Professor Lentz and Beck from Germany, Orbeli, Armitage Museum director with Prof. Snake From the Soviet Union and Professor Denis Ross from England attended the ceremony and during the entire trip they were guests of the Iranian Government and the Iranian government made "the largest hospitality and generosity" in this regard (Bolsher, 1990, p. 310).
Selection of Ferdowsi was for its own reasons.The National Art Association seems to have tried to fulfill the demands of the modern state of authoritarian and romantic nationalism.Ferdowsi's most important feature was that he created a magnificent work, regardless of post Islamic Arabic and Turkish cultures, based on the myths and epics of the pre-modern pre-Islamic Iran, that, in any sense, was the propaganda of the authoritarian, modernist state and nationalist intellectuals who believed in romanticism.Ferdowsi's other characteristic of the poet was attention to Farsi and the use of the words of this language.This feature was of particular interest to the thinkers of the German Romantic discourse in Iran.Using Ferdowsi, Shahnameh and extensive propaganda, the principle of "A nation, a language" of the German nationalist dialectic, was emphasized more than ever before.Ferdowsi, the symbol of the ancient nation of Iran, was considered as an important part of the Iranian national identity due to its role in preserving national language.
The construction of the Mausoleum of Ferdowsi from the very first years of the founding of the National Society of National Monuments was on the agenda of the Association.In an effort by Foroughi, the prime minister and senior member of the Association, in 1925 a stamp named Ferdowsi was published and its revenues were spent on making the tomb.In 1927, a single article was passed in the National Assembly, which allowed the government to help 20,000 Tomans in building the tomb funded from the same year's savings.The Association was also allowed to publish a lottery leaflet in order to obtain assistance from various Iranian people in this regard that funded hundred and ten thousand Tomans (Bahrul'alumi, 1965, p. 26).In 1930, another ten thousand Tomans were allocated to the construction of the tomb ( Ibid).
Bahrul'alumi quotes from Isa Sadiq, the main and effective member of the association, "Because the National Art Association believed that Ferdowsi's services in restoring Iranian culture and history were similar to that of the Cyrus the Great, Ferdowsi's tomb should largely resemble the tomb of the Cyrus the Great in Pasargad".Accordingly, the German Hercsfeld, the French Godard, and Karim Taherzadeh, a German-educated Iranian architect, offered some suggestions on the issue, which the association approved the current proposal ( Ibid, p. 30).
The publication of books and treatises in order to build the national identity of the authoritarian and the romantic official national language of the Reza Shah course was one of the other activities of the Association ( Rahmanian, 2014, p. 225).

II. Museum of Ancient Iran
Pahlavi's government abolished excavation privileges for the discovery of ancient monuments from French.With the recruitment of Ernst Hertzfeld in 1927, the Pahlavi government made an effective contribution to the development of Iranian archeology.The modern authoritarian state, founded the Museum of Ancient Persia proposed by Ali Asghar Hekmat, Minister of Education in 1937 in order to be able to display Iranian works and objects in a particular place as a symbol of the glorious history of the Iranian nation and to introduce the nation to its pre-Islamic identity.French designer and architect Andre Godard designed the building on the order of the Government of Iran, which in the first sight reminded the viewer of Taq Kasra, the Sasanian capital (Afsar, 1976).

III. Ancient Persia Center
The "Ancient Persia Center" was formed to further explore the ancient Iranian culture and civilization to promote nationalist and aristocratic tendencies, with the management of Abdurrahman Saif Azad with the help of several Zoroastrian capitalists.From the 11 February 1932, he published the colorful weekly "Ancient Iran".The heading was adorned with "Ancient Iran", "God-Iran" and the message "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds " and a Foruhar image, and two small images on both sides of a picture of "Darius the Great" in Persepolis, often with a first page full on history.Articles about the history and culture of Iran in the Achaemenid and Sassanid eras were published in this weekly (Sattari, 2015, p. 10).

IV. Organization of the development of thoughts
One of the most important organizations created by authoritarian romantic nationalism government of Reza Shah in order to internalize and propagate its desired nationalism was the organization of the development of thoughts.Founded in 1938 on the basis of the "Sayings and Sermons" organization, the organization was aimed at cultivating Iranian ideas on national issues, territorial unity, familiarizing Iranians with native culture and Persian language based on the thoughts of Ahmad Matin Daftari, Minister of Justice and the future prime minister (Safaee, 1986, p. 92).
The organization of the development of thoughts seems to have been influenced by the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi authoritarian nationalist system.The organization of the development of thoughts seemed to have sought to direct social thought to understanding Iran's issues based on the official views of the Pahlavi state by the propaganda system and extensive propaganda (Sattari 2015, p. 10).
As mentioned earlier, the belief in the majority of intellectuals in the field of Iranian nationalism was based on the authoritarian romantic nationalism in the years after the Constitutional Revolution and throughout Reza Shah Reign.Many Iranian thinkers emphasized the need for national education and familiarization of the Iranian nation with the bases of national identity before any civil liberties were delegated.Hence, the organization of the development of thoughts was set up to enable the government to strengthen the sense of national pride and patriotism by organizing lecture sessions, printing journals, magazines and books, music, radio and drama (Sadiq, 1953, pp. 355-154).
The organization was an institution to apply the official views of government nationalism and to create cultural reforms from top to bottom by modern authoritarian state.In other words, the institution acted in a complementary manner with other institutions formed in this course.For example, many students became acquainted through textbooks and schools with their own Iranian identity (Iranian sovereignty), while other classes of society, especially adults, did not receive those pieces of training, and the organization of the development of thoughts should have completed the work, it was to enter the arena in attempt to internalize the slogan of God, the King, the Homeland.The number of the Association lecture sessions in Tehran and other cities in 1939, 1940 and 1941 were 4910, 1320 and 1812, respectively, with an average of 195 attendees per meeting.Government employees and school administrators seem to be the largest audience for these lectures.In this way, they became acquainted with the official ideas of the modern-day authoritarian government regarding the nation, national identity, and the relationship between the love for Shah and patriotism (Hedayat, 1996, p. 434).
The organization, which was formed by the decree of Reza Shah, consisted of a central board in Tehran and branches in other cities and a range of sub committees including radio, theatre, textbooks, music and press.Also, during the February 1938 session, with the adoption of organization of the development of thoughts in colleges, efforts were made to promote sacrifice for homeland (Ibid, pp.10-11).
In addition, meetings were held every week in four parts of the city in Tehran in order to make the parents and old Iran citizens acquainted with the need for sacrifices on homeland and the monarchy, the preservation of the physical and mental health and the principles of modern life (Ettelaat, November 11, 1939).
According to the same principle of the priority of education on democracy, the modern authoritarian government seemed to try to bring Iranians first with a minimum level of acceptance of the basic principles of membership in a modern nation, so that the unfortunate experience of the failure of the constitution would not be repeated.
Ettelaat newspaper in an article on the Pahlavi political system objectives reads, "The Awakening of National Pride and its Growth," "Iran's Holiest Pride," "The Great Secretary of the Iranians," on the basis of the "Revolutionary Treaties of Ancient History," to prepare Iranian children's thoughts for teaching "love for God friendliness and love for Shah", in order to make them "great and gentle" ( Ettelaat editorial (home and homeland) January 29, 1939).
The same newspaper also considered the most important way to change the nation's destiny by cultivating the mental and spiritual revolution through the development of national thoughts and education by the educational institutions in the article "Creating Thoughts".Also the organization of the development of thoughts considered to act strongly in the realization and achievement of this important point as a spiritual struggle to strengthen the unity of the nation's spirit and the development of national conscience in order to distinguish between good and bad (Ettelaat, January 10, 1939).
Ahmad Matin Daftari also introduced the creation of a "single culture," "national consciousness, and national will", which focuses more heavily on the kingdom, as the goal of organization of the development of thoughts, expressing all national emotions as love for Shah; referring to the fact that the Iranian nation always needs a "Pioneer, A King of Power", and also introduced the Iranian people's ideas for "faith in the ruler" to strengthen the "national spirit" and "national sentiment" as a necessity (Ibid, July 9, 1939).
Ali Akbar Siyasi, another thinker of romantic nationalism and a member of the "Iran's Youth Center" gave a lecture on the organization of the development of thoughts.He said, if this new organization can build on the holy intentions of the great revolutionary king in the thoughts, customs, and morals of the Iranian people, the organization will be successful (Ibid, July 24, 1939).
At the annual celebration of the organization of the development of thoughts on April 25, 1940, the Minister of Culture gave a detailed report on the activities of that organization and described the performance of schools of thought raising throughout Iran, in which teachers were taught history, geography and biography of the elders of Iran with the issue of nationality, they were introduced to the national identity of national unity, they outlined the course list of these schools, some of the most important outlines of these pieces of training were described to the audience as follows: 1-Nationality includes principles related to the organization of the nation and the conditions of its existence and survival, and the importance of race and language and the basic factors of nationality in civilization.
2-The development of thoughts by the history includes the main traits of the Iranian race, civilization and politics, and love for Shah and patriotism of the Iranian faith.
3-The development of thoughts by geography includes the importance of the time and place of Iran and the geographical unity and the importance of its natural resources.
4-The striking figures biographies includes characteristics of some Iranian political and literary figures and their impact on the social environment and the history.
5-Presentations of national works include the importance of the sharing of history, material and spiritual history and the description of the greatest national works of Iran (Ettelaat, 1940).
The Minister of Culture also spoke on the establishment of a firm dedicated to publishing unified textbooks in order to strengthen the high-ranking Shah's Passion and patriotic feelings in Iranian students under the supervision of the organization for the development of thoughts.At the same meeting, the audience of the lectures of the organization was classified into three categories: 1) students, 2) mass people and 3) the privileged class of the country (Ibid).
The Radio Commission for the organization of the development of thoughts, as well as the Commission for Textbooks, in turn, made efforts to modernize modern authoritarian state to strengthen its official nationalist discourse.Plans were made on the history, geography and literature of Iran and the need to preserve the Persian language on the radio, and the program was selected with special promotional methods.The Textbook Commission was also obliged to re-examine the texts of textbooks in order to institutionalize romantic nationalism and the official authoritarianism of the Pahlavi government (Ibid, 1940).
The Music Commission also tried to capture the preservation of original and traditional music from all over Iran in order to create epic songs that would keep the spirit of Iranian nationality and national vitality alive among the people.In summing up the activities of the organization for the development of thoughts, it can be said that the organization was based on the sense of the need for the political apparatus of Reza Shah to create a common national identity based on a romantic and nationalist discourse.The modern authoritarian state has tried, along with the extensive propaganda of other institutions, with the help of the organization of the development of thoughts, bringing the integrated national identity to all walks of life using various tools such as music, textbooks and non-textbooks, press, radio, etc. to make Iranians familiar with the "national spirit" and the pride of nationality.On the other hand, it seemed that the modern authoritarian state and its intellectuals attempted to create a centralized organization for the application of official nationalist policies based on authoritarian readings and the past oriented (romantic) beliefs (Dolphani, 1996, pp. 70-94).

V. Academy and strengthening the national language of Iranians
Iranian intellectuals in the late Qajar era, influenced by the problems caused by the linguistic and cultural differences of Iran, and emphasizing the complications of this heterogeneity, demanded more attention in Persian as a national language and a criterion for all components of the Iranian nation.
These intellectuals strongly influenced by the Romanticist Germanist discourse of German nationalism recognized the Persian language as the official language of Iranians as an important part of Iran's national issues.For this reason, during the reign of Pahlavi, the modern authoritarian state of Reza Shah tried to institutionalize the feeling of solidarity and unity among all the religions and ethnicities of Iran, relying on this "feature" of the Iranian nation.
Unity in the training and expansion of the national bureaucracy throughout Iran, along with the establishment of the Farsi Academy for the use of Persian vocabulary has caused all Iranian children who studied in schools in Iran, as well as all those who are somehow engaged in government offices work or referring to them as a client, to touch Persian as a national language and part of the common identity of the Iranian nation.In other words, this internalization of the Persian language has made this feature as one of the factors linking the components of the nation, to highlight the sense of "self-common" among the people of Iran.
Earlier, Iranian intellectuals such as Mirza Fath Ali Akhondzadeh and Jalal-Al-Din Mirza Qajar attempted to establish Persian as well as refining and trimming the Persian line and language with alien words, especially Arabic, with the reign of Reza Khan on the military and then the creation of military forces by the modern authoritarian state made modifications to the terms used in the system (Nehzat-e Shargh, 1921).In 1924 and 1925, a committee formed by Arbab Kiikharsar Shahrokh and Zabih Behrouz created more than 300 new words for the system (Maki, 1947, p. 207).
Reza Shah seem to have been affected by a trip to Turkey and his acquaintance with the reforms of the Atatürk government in that country in term of the national language also the creation of a context by the modern authoritarian state of the reformist regime in Persian (Sadiq, 1953, p. 1, p. 205-201).
With the domination of the Iranian national government over the country and the establishment of the sovereignty of the central government of Iran in areas where the language of the people was not Farsi, the Persian language was strengthened as the official language of all Iranians.In 1927, the government tried to force schools that had the non-Persian primary language of instruction, from then on, to teach in the national language of Iran, and also to schools with non-Persian names to replace the names with Persian names.In Azerbaijan, American schools were forced to accept only students to provide proof of the completion of the six-year course of Persian language schools (Mathedi, 2004, p. 204).
Generally speaking, the policies of the modern Pahlavi state can be assessed in order to strengthen the comprehensive language of the country and create a severe restriction on foreign and ethnic languages, rather than through the policies based on the German discursive dialectic of nationalism, based on the principle of "A nation -a language" to be implemented in the country and to strengthen the Persian language as one of the most important ethical issues of the Iranian nation throughout the country.
It is noteworthy that the two great thinkers of this age, which were practically outside the sovereignty of the modern authoritarian state, each, in turn, urged for the strengthening of the national language against the ethnic and local languages.
Taqi Urani, the Iranian Turk speaking thinker, who was not unfamiliar with the leftist thoughts of his era, wanted to evict Turkish foreign language from Azerbaijan.He believed that the presence of Turkish and Mongolian peoples in Azerbaijan "imposed Turkish non-cultural language" on the "Aryan" people of Azerbaijan, and that all Iranians had to work through publications, newspapers and books that the Persian language in Azerbaijan publishes the Zarathustra's home language with other parts of Iran (Arani, 1943, pp. 63-62).
Also, Ahmad Kasravi, who was also From Tabriz, made a lot of efforts to strengthen the Persian language.The use of Farsi in his writings and sometimes the invention of new vocabulary, which seemed to some extent unfamiliar to the general public, was one of his actions.According to Kasravi, "the right to speak the Persian language and its trimming from the Akkah (flaws) has been one of our demands, which we have been trying to disperse the treaties since 1933, so that, on the one hand, the Akkah words have written that language and opened them up, and we have shown the way for it, and, on the one hand, we have tried to pick up Persian words or make new words or in other ways to trim the language and make it correct" ( Kasravi, 1943, p. 6).
It seemed that the strengthening of the national language against ethnic languages and foreign languages had become a common desire among Iranian intellectuals of various political and modern authoritarian states.Therefore, Mohammad Ali Foroughi allowed the establishment of the Academy on the basis of the French Academy and according to the requirements of Iran from the person of Reza Shah and was himself elected as its first chairman.In the first step, 24 people entered the Academy (Sadiq, 1953, p. 2, p. 241) (Document No. 2).Some individuals also became members of the Academy.For example, Arthur Christian Dan, the great Danish scholar, was able to become a member of the association by the proposal of three members of the Academy (National Library and Archives of Iran, the same documents) (Document number 3).
The general purpose of the academy, which was also well-documented in its letter, was to trim the Persian language from inappropriate foreign words, prepare grammar and extract the rules of the Persian language, introduce the works and books, stories, poems and old terms of Persian language, encourage poets and writers to create literary masterpieces and guiding thoughts to the truth of Persian literature (Hekmat, 1976, p. 19).
At the Academy, there were various commissions such as vocabulary, grammar, terminology commissions, and so on.The vocabulary commission was divided into four parts of administrative terms, judiciary terms, scientific terms and geographic terms (Sadiq, 1953, pp. 255-251).
Earlier the Academy had begun changing geographic names.For example, shortly after the Ferdowsi Millennium celebration, all the embassies of foreign governments were asked to use the name "Iran" instead of "Persia", because Persia was only one part of Iran and thus represents a part of the country (Bolsher, 1990, p. 313).
With the establishment of the Academy and the creation of the Dictionary of Committees, and subsequently the Geographic Terminology Commission, extensive efforts were made to rename the geographical names into Persian with the main purpose of de-Arabization and de-Turkization.
Names that were combined with words such as "Chae", "Su", "Dagh", and the like, became Persian names, and Turkish and Arabic names of tribes and tribal names of Iran were replaced by names based on national language.Also, some of the ancient Persian names that fit were re-approved by the Academy.
It can be said that the Academy has renamed the geographic names based on popular requests and suggestions from the government, especially the proposal of the Ministry of Post and Telegraph (Ettelaat, 9, 1934).The modern authoritarian state seemed to have been appealing to believers in the romantic discourse of nationalism, and tried to diminish and ignore ethnically-based names, strengthen national unity in order to achieve its intended goal of strengthening the national spirit to modernize the country.(Sattari, 2015, p. 33).
The broadcast was scheduled for eight hours per day, broadcasted on two occasions.These programs included Persian and non-Persian music, historical, geographical, and literary speeches and news in Persian, and Western languages.Finally, on April 23, 1940, at 7 pm., Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince, along with Ahmad Matin Daftari, the Prime Minister, the Government Board, the Secretary of the National Assembly, the Minister of the Courts and Heads of State and the army attended at the Radio Broadcasting Building, opening of the Tehran Radio.The voice recorders were opened by the Crown Prince and then the emblem of the modern authoritarian state was performed under the supervision of Maine Bashian (Mokhtari Isfahani, 1999, p. 20).
Ultimately, the objective of the modern-day state of the state of the formation of radio can be the effect on the public opinion of Iranians to build and strengthen an integrated national identity of Iran.This device in a serious interaction with the organization of thought development is a good means for doing the government's intention to build a romantic reading of nationalism.In particular, the media could have been very effective at a time when most Iranians were not literate and could not use written media.

Conclusion
Pahlavi's first administration, based on the discourse of romantic authoritarianism, based on elements such as antiquity, authoritarianism, love for Shah, emphasis on national language and modernization, created institutions, each of which, in turn, with the task of creating the transformation in a part of the Iranian national identity.Accordingly, the official policy of the modern-day authoritarian government of Reza Shah has crystallized in the actions of these institutions.Emphasis on Iranian history, especially its ancient times, the strengthening and refining of Persian as the national language of Iranians, the creation of a national museum to show and remind the Iranian civilization's honors, celebrating the great people and celebrities of Iran, especially Ferdowsi, as a protector of Iranian language and identity, and promoting the necessity of modernization of the country to restore the authority and dominance of the ancient civilization of Iran and to bring the Iranian nation to the convoys of the world civilization is including the actions of these institutions in order to apply the ideas of the government modern Pahlavi of the Iranian national identity and strengthen the official discourse on this issue.
The statute of the Academy was approved by the Government on May 20, 1935 (The documents of ID No. 8046 / 297, 6634 / 297, 18309/297 and 35994/297 of the National Archives of Iran indicate the adoption of the Articles of Association of June 1314 AH.) (Document No. 1).

Table 1 .
Some of the city names changed in the first Pahlavi era are as follows(Saifpour Fatemi, 1999, pp., a commission by the Radio was created in the organization for the development of thoughts to feed the production of radio programs.Mahmoud Hakimi, deputy head of the Ministry of Post and Telegraph and Telephone, said in a statement to the Radio Commission of the organization for the development of thoughts that the Radio Commission was established in March of 1939 in accordance with Article 6 of the organization for the development of thoughts and includes several subsidiary commissions for music, news, agriculture, health, sports, history, geography and housekeeping Also