A Study On The Culture Integration And Nation Building Of Pahlavi Dynasty In Iran

In today’s international political system,nation-state has become the most basic political unit.The Middle East is facing more severe challenges than the Western world in the transition of nation-states.Among them,how to construct a modern national identity is a proposition of the century generally faced by Middle Eastern countries.However,as far as the current situation is concerned,most Middle Eastern countries have not submitted satisfactory answers in terms of national construction.Therefore,it is particularly important to choose a country that has been relatively successful in solving this problem to conduct a case study.As a regional power in the Middle East,Iran has diversity in its ethnic composition,history and culture.However,compared with other Middle Eastern countries,even though Iran has undergone major historical changes such as the Islamic Revolution,it has been relatively successful in the construction of its national identity,and has not caused serious ethnic problems with the change of regime or other factors.The relationship between ethnic groups and sects within the country is relatively harmonious,and the people have a strong sense of identity with the country.This is due to its relatively appropriate cultural policy for national construction in the process of national transformation.In Iran’s long and difficult process of national transformation,the Pahlavi dynasty became a critical period in Iran’s history for national construction.National construction requires the use of traditional cultural resources to construct a unified and shared cultural concept and identity.There are two cultural "big traditions" in Iran: the secular ancient Persian culture and the Persian Islamic Shia beliefs.The Pahlavi dynasty was deeply influenced by Iranian secular nationalism,and it focused on building a unified language,historical concept and cultural identity with the help of ancient Persian culture.Language is an important carrier of cultural exchange and national identity.On the one hand,the Pahlavi dynasty vigorously promoted the development of the Persian language purification movement,replacing other foreign languages and vocabulary such as Arabic with Persian;on the other hand,it promoted the Persian language through education and dissemination,and even forced ethnic minorities to learn Persian has further strengthened the status of Persian as the national language and common language.Because Iran has a long history of civilization,different nations have very different historical experiences.Therefore,Iran has a diverse historical memory.On the basis of constructing Persian as a universal language,the Pahlavi dynasty continued to strengthen the importance of ancient Persian civilization in the development of Iran’s history through archaeological activities,cultural relic display,historical compilation and historical drama,and established modern Iran and ancient times.The historical connection of Persia.In this way,the ancient Persian civilization was shaped as the common historical memory and cultural concept of all ethnic groups in modern Iran,which awakened the memory of the sleeping pre-Islamic Persian glorious culture of the Iranians.Although the Pahlavi dynasty also used Shia identification to attract religious people,such as the Shia symbol on the national emblem.But generally speaking,Iran implemented a policy of suppressing Shia identity and emphasizing secular national identity during this period.The cultural integration of the Pahlavi dynasty had a significant impact on Iran’s national construction.Its national identity constructed on the basis of ancient Persian cultural traditions was internalized into the national memory of modern Iran,which laid the historical foundation of Iran as a modern nation-state.At the same time,it has also objectively shaped the identity of most Iranian peoples with Persian culture.Today,the identity of ancient Persian culture is deeply rooted in the hearts of most Iranian people.However,the construction of national identity based on ancient Persian culture also has the problem of assimilation to minority cultures.In particular,the suppression of Shi’ite identity objectively alienates the numerous Ulima class and devout Shi’ite followers,and will arouse their dissatisfaction.After the Islamic Revolution in Iran in1979,the new Iranian regime began to reconstruct Iranian identity on the basis of Persian Shia beliefs,but the influence of ancient Persian culture remained lasting and far-reaching.