Author: M Hamid Ansari
Publisher: Rupa
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 385
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8129107740
Description
The Iranian Revolution of 1979 shook the world and changed the strategic balance in the region. In the build-up to the Revolution there was a unity of purpose that was summed up by Ayatollah Khomeini: The monarchy must go. The Shah is corrupt. His hands are dripping with blood. He is a foreign agent. He is the Yazid of our age. In the perception of most Iranians, a tyrant had usurped the state; its retrieval was therefore essential.
Beyond that, however, there was little by way of an agreed agenda for social reconstruction. This became evident in the years that followed. Revolutionary passion first gave way to revolutionary reason and then to a reawakened desire for reforms.
A quarter of a century later, demography, education and urbanization have become the agents of change. One generation has power while the other has demands. The purpose of the Observer Research Foundation’s New Delhi conference was to explore the evolving perceptions and to ascertain the direction and pace of change.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: M H ANSARI
MESSAGE: YASHWANT SINHA
INAUGURAL SESSION
R K Mishra
Brajesh Mishra
SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Reforms, Reaction and the Future of Democracy in Contemporary Iran
The Rise and Fall of President Khatami and the Reform Movement
The Religious roots of Iran’s revolution and Political System
Social changes in Iran After the Islamic Revolution
The Road to the Debacle: An analysis of the February 2004 Parliamentary Elections in Iran
Iran: The Revolutions of October
Iran, Islam and the Revolution
The Future of Iran in Question
Modernist Islam in Iran, Actual challenge, Process of Modernization
The Relationship Between Religion and the Political System
Islam, religious Fundamentalism and Reform: A Look at the Iranian Islamic revolution After a Quarter of a Century
FOREIGN POLICY
Mehdi Hashemi’s Fall: an episode of the Iranian Intra Elite Struggle for Power Under Khomeini
The Islamic republic at Twenty-five: Adaptation and Evolution
Iran and American Wars on its Flanks
The Iranian Gas Pipeline to the Indian Subcontinent
Iran Witnessed by History
Foreign Policy After Twenty-five Years of the Revolution
Iran’s Evolving Regional Politics: reflections of domestic Factionalism
WOMEN’S MOVEMENT
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Women’s Political Participation in Post Revolutionary Iran
Women’s Movement in Post-Revolutionary Iran
CULTURE
The Contemporary Historical Context of Indo-Iranian relations
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX