The White Revolution with which the Shah of Persia wanted to make Iran a power
“Some parties believe that only the rules imposed by their doctrines are correct. Our strength lies in the fact that our revolution does not seek the triumph of one class or one ideology over another... Ours is a White Revolution: we do not adopt any slogan, but we embrace everything that seems right to us, be it communism, socialism, or capitalism.”
This is how Mohamed Reza Pahlevi tried to explain to the world, from what today could be defined as a naive equidistance between the two blocs into which the world was then divided, the series of reforms he promoted in that White Revolution that he pursued against all odds since the beginning of the 1960s.
Read alsoAt that time, the Shah of Persia had already been on the throne for two decades and, with invaluable assistance from the United States and British secret services, had overcome much of the internal opposition, beginning with the government of Prime Minister Mohamed Mosaddeq, who was overthrown in 1953 after nationalizing the oil industry and inviting foreign managers and employees of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, the predecessor of British Petroleum, to leave the country. He also nationalized the telephone service and fishing, granting concessions to Soviet companies.
Reza Pahlavi then assumed absolute power and, embodying a kind of enlightened oriental and contemporary despotism, set about transforming the country, turning it, with the help of this flourishing extractive industry, into an international benchmark, a model that the other oil-producing monarchies of the Persian Gulf would eventually follow, albeit without Iran's openness.
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“I envisioned future generations of Iranians proudly taking their rightful place in the vast family of nations and fulfilling their responsibilities with dignity. I hoped to see the medieval shadows from which Iran had emerged barely half a century earlier forever dispelled, and for the light, the very essence of Iranian civilization and culture, to prevail. Throughout my reign, I lived solely for the fulfillment of this dream, which was beginning to come true,” he wrote in a memoir marked by the frustration of exile and the dreams snatched away in 1979 by another very different revolution, the Islamic one.
To begin this path of modernization, the first step was to dissolve a parliament dominated by traditional power in 1961, thus paving the way for agrarian reform that would put an end to large estates and the feudal power of the landowners. However, the power of oil meant that what could easily be considered expropriation ended up being a land purchase.
Literacy, universal health care, social security, equality between men and women... the reforms were comprehensive.Similarly, the agrarian and industrial revolutions brought about by the White Revolution turned numerous farmers and workers into owners of public agricultural and industrial holdings, in an interpretation of the cooperative regime that was more Soviet than capitalist, but which would also end up benefiting many Iranians, even though most of them were not actual owners.
Literacy, universal healthcare, social security, equality between men and women, starting with the female vote, housing, infrastructure, and Westernization and secularism based on the Turkish model of Kemal Atatürk were other elements of the Shah's proclaimed revolution. A series of reforms that, understandably, met with firm rejection from the Shia clergy and rural society, which found its principal spokesperson in Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Iranian women voting in the referendum promoted by Mohamed Reza Pahlavi
Faced with this situation, the Shah promoted a referendum that summarized in six points the already concise plan he had presented to Parliament, and which we offer as a manifesto for the new era he was trying to usher in. Voters had to cast their votes in favor of the entire referendum. This included women, who, despite not having the right to vote, voted at their own polling stations on an exceptional and non-binding basis.
The ballots included the abolition of the landlord-tenant system through agrarian reform, the nationalization of forests and pastures, the sale of state-owned industries to finance agrarian reform, worker ownership of their factories, electoral law reform to allow women to vote, and the creation of a national Literacy Corps.
99.9% of voters supported Reza Pahlavi's development program in a controversial referendum.The result, as predicted, was overwhelming: 5.6 million voters voted in favor of the White Revolution's proposals, 99.9% of the vote, while only 4,000 voted against, a meager 0.1%. Despite calls for a boycott by Mosaddeq's National Front and the Shia clergy, turnout was massive.
The main result of the reforms was education, which raised the literacy rate from 12% to 70% in just a few years. It also led to the industrialization of the economy and the construction of major infrastructure, primarily in Tehran, which became a major attraction for the rural population. Iranian society opened up to the world and excelled in various artistic forms.
However, repression intensified, and Reza Pahlavi exercised his role as a demigod with excessive zeal. In 1967, he proclaimed himself shahanshah (king of kings) on his Peacock Throne, crafted of gold and encrusted with 27,000 precious stones. The height of excess came in 1971, when he commemorated the 2,500th anniversary of the founding of Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Persian Empire, with the elite of international society. This celebration has gone down in history as the most lavish—and expensive—celebration in history.
The program1. Abolition of the traditional landlord-tenant model through agrarian reform.
2. Nationalization of forests and pastures.
3. Urban reconstruction and renewal.
4. Creation of an Army of Knowledge.
5. Creation of a Health and Hygiene Army.
Creation of an Army of Knowledge and an Army of Health and Hygiene
6. Distribution of land between peasants and farmers.
7. Free and compulsory education.
8. Nationalization of Iran's hybrid resources.
9. Women's right to vote.
10. Workers' participation rights in industrial complexes.
11. Introduction of Social Security.
12. Creation of ministries against corruption.
Last deliveriesThis piece is part of a series that recovers the political, artistic, and social manifestos of the contemporary era to contextualize them from a historical perspective and for educational purposes.
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