JOURNAL OF SOCIAL, HUMANITIES
AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES
Open Access Refereed E-Journal & Refereed & Indexed JOSHASjournal (ISSN:2630-6417)
Architecture, Culture, Economics and Administration, Educational Sciences, Engineering, Fine Arts, History, Language, Literature, Pedagogy, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, Tourism and Tourism Management & Other Disciplines in Social Sciences
Vol:5, Issue:21 2019 pp.1071-1077
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THE EFFECT OF THE REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE ON THE SOCIAL RESPONSE THROUGH THE EXAMPLE OF SAMED BEHRENGI
Asst. Prof. Abbas KARAAĞAÇLI
Giresun University, Faculty Member, Director of Black Sea Scientific Research and Application Center (KARASAM) Giresun/Turkey
Article Arrival Date : 10.11.2019 Article Published Date : 10.12.2019 Article Type : Research Article
Doi Number : http://dx.doi.org/10.31589/JOSHAS.194
Reference : Karaağaçlı, A. (2019). “The Effect Of The Revolutionary Literature On The Social Response Through The Example Of Samed Behrengi”, Journal Of Social, Humanities and Administrative Sciences, 5(21): 1071-1077
ABSTRACT
It is obvious that the language, art, culture and the literature have been important factors in almost all kinds of social changes including the revolutions and changes in power. When especially a regime change in the reigning power is in question within a revolutionary process, we witness the aforementioned effect at an even higher extend. During the times when the language is used as an element of reaction to the rulers, there are many examples for this to evoke and mobilize the masses, which in turn, become a social movement. The enlightened sects and the artists become the speakers of the masses during the Pre-Revolution Era against the authoritarian regime of the Pahlavi Dynasty with the art works they presented. Towards this direction, such people turned into the means for directing the regime and became speakers and symbols of the reaction of the society against the regime.
This work will be an attempt to analyze the life, works, campaign as well as the language, art and the relationships with the regime of the teacher named Samed Behrengi, who was born in Tabriz, the center of the Eastern Azerbaijani Region of Iran and who died in an unfortunate accident, within the scope of the approach discussed above. Many of the works of the writer, who has been a guide to various intellects in the world, were translated into Turkish in our country and subsequently became highly popular as well. In our study, the works of the writer that he penned within his relatively short life, shall be analyzed, his life will be revealed and the articles, written about him, will be presented to the attention of the authorities for the first time by a scientific paper as his exemplary life and how he became the spearhead of the change shall be discussed.
Keywords: Iran, Tabriz, Revolution, The Little Blue Cod, One Peach, a thousand peach.
1. LOGİN
1.1. The Political Environment, In Which Samed Behrengi Grew
Samed Behrengi, with the works that he produced during his short life and the ideas he held, questioned the authoritarian regime and the dominant economic system of the era. With the works he generally penned for the children, he pioneered the emergence of revolutionary theories towards the change in his society.
great deal of things to adults through his works, indicated that “Kids, this society is what your fathers left you as their legacy. You need to minimize your mischief or even you have to abandon such ways completely. You need to seek and find the solutions that will overcome the issues of the society and you need to eradicate the disease.”
“There are several ways to know the society. Reading books happens to be one of such ways. We need to choose the best of the books, the ones that may provide answers to our questions. The books should enrich our society and the nations before us and they should show us the social diseases. Stories may draw up a real picture of our society; they may explain the issues of the society and the underlying reasons. The stories do not only entertain those who read them. That is why I want the smart kids to read them not merely for spare time leisure but I also want the kids to read the stories for learning, getting informed.”
In some of the villages that he went as a teacher, it was not possible to find a door or window of the schools let alone having desks or blackboards for that matter. He used wherever he found empty, as a classroom in order not to disrupt the education of children. He did not only teach children the writing and reading but he also gave them the ways to fight with the hardest aspects of life as he also indoctrinated them to have a insurgent soul. With the works that he produced while going back and forth on the village roads with great difficulties, he shed light on the problems of the society and became a spearhead for the theoretical organizing of the students.
Behrengi completed his education successfully. The importance that he placed to his educational life also helped the emergence of his investigative behavior. For him, coming from a worker family led him to adopt an ideology that paid attention to the lifestyle of working class. Learning the proletarian culture and grasping their culture was also an element that steered his life. The matching lifestyles helped him to analyze the lifestyle of them.
Although the TUDEH Party, had been one of the oldest communist parties in the world at that time, it was operating in Iran underground and it was occasionally occupying a place for itself in terms of the literature and ideology. The newspapers, journals and books that had adopted the ideology of the party were in circulation. Some of the publishing were legal while some were not. Some of the prints on the other hand, were smuggled into Iran from abroad. There were also ideologist clashes within the ranks of the party and the prominent figures of the party were accusing the party leadership of being revisionist and opportunist. Subsequently, S. Behrengi, with his works and with the stories that he wrote for children, he guided the dilemma of Iran's Leftist movement and led the way for the ideological make up of the organization named (Sazaman-e Cherikha-ye Feda'i Chalq-e Iran (Organization of Iranian People's Fedaee Guerrillas)), which adopted the armed resistance against the dictatorship of the Shah, especially with the stories The Little Blue Cod and Tafted Camel, which became legends.
The main reasons for Behrengi to adopt the socialist thinking were his roots, being a child of a worker family and the situation, which his country was in. During that era, the village schools were sort of the reflections of the country as a whole. On the other hand, a very active process was going on in Iran. So Behrengi did not keep his silence and just like any ordinary person with consciousness, he sided with the resistance.
Behrengi lived with the workers and villagers, who were struggling to get by wretched conditions with hunger looming around. When reminiscing about those times, he says: "I was not born to this
world like a mushroom, without a father or mother and I did not perish quickly like a mushroom. I benefitted humidity whenever I found it around, I grew. Nobody tended me water. But I grew. Just like a silverberry, ill shaped, unformed; I grew as a person, who contended with less of water. My father says "If they were to divide Iran, you wouldn't get a share more than this"" His first article
on July 1965 under the pseudonym of S-Galangush. When the journal was closed after a close while, Behrengi began publishing his articles in journals such as Mehdi Azadi (Land of Freedom) printed in Tabriz.
His articles and works rapidly gained attention amongst the revolutionist circles and intellects. Some of the books reached to their 4th or 5th editions in no time. His work "Thoughts on the Education System of Iran" was one of such books. His works were presented at a cost that could be accessible by people from all layers of the society. According to him, it is not important for a book to print more or to have a nice colorful cover. A good book should have a strong content. Dr. Gulam Huseyin Saidi, one of the great intellects of the day underlines; "Behrengi, in his letters that he penned to his friends and writers, was complaining about the high book prices. He purchased books with all he got and put them in a backpack, ranging from one village to another dealing them to all for reading.
Children, who would be the main pillars of a society has a special importance for Behrengi. He hid all of his revolutionary ideas behind the lines of the stories he wrote for the children. Children needed to be reminded that half of the world suffers from the hunger and thus they required to be thought to find a solution for that matter. For him, children should be kept away from false propagandas of the world in order to provide them a good upbringing. Behrengi said “we need to teach our children the following; there are such children in your country that he \ she cannot eat just a piece of cheese just for a taste, he \ she has unaware of the color of the meat. However, a minority always finds duck, roasted in wine in the dining table.”
According to Behrengi, the social events and occurrences are not solely composed of the developments, confined to four walls. The concept we call the society is in all aspects and corners of our lives. It encompasses the farthest villages as well as the metropolitan cities. It is the dirt and mud ridden village roads, the vivid city avenues, small, dark and mosquito ridden huts of the poor villages as well as the palaces of the individuals, who are addicted to their luxurious lives.
In addition to the stories, Behrengi also penned poems and school books and produced important works in the field of folklore. Also he completed the translations of some other Works in his short life.In his work named “The History and Science in 6 Articles”, he presented his thoughts towards the contemporary science under the following titles;
1. Azerbaijan during the era constitutional monarchy, 2. Some words about the history lesson,
3. Knowing the World,
4. The lines of the ancient and the modern science,
5. A short essay on external thoughts and the consciousness, 6. Analyzing the Book of the Solar System.
For example, in his essay named “The lines of the ancient and the modern science”, he compared the ideas of the scholars such as Pier Rosso, Leonardo Da Vinci, William Harvey, Tycho Brahe, Kepler and Galileo and attempted to deduct a conclusion on the middle age philosophy and the scholastic thinking.
Behrengi, who was in close contact with the intellects and revolutionists of that day, co-penned the work, "the Legends of Azerbaijan" with Behruz Dehgani, who was amongst the establishment cadre of the Sazaman-e Cherikha-ye Feda'i Chalq-e Iran. (He was later executed) Behrengi produced a number of letters in addition to his works. Those letters were compiled by his brother Esed Behrengi later and were published as a book under the name "The Letters of Behrengi". (1978, Emir Kebir Printhouse Tehran) Behrengi used a pseudonym Cengiz Merati.
In Behrengi's works, a mass that dreams about the river beyond the water and the sea beyond the river can be found. Little children that befriended a crow family and the stories of a beach tree that talks with the sun were examples. His world of thoughts was always rich. Behrengi had always had big dreams. As he made the heroes of his stories adopt his dreams, he also made the children adopt his dreams in the same manner. His biggest dream was creating a socialist country and everything he did, he did for this cause.
2. ORGANIZATIONAL REVOLUTIONIST AWAKENING OF THE INDIVIDUAL THAT COMES INTO BEING IN THE LITTLE BLUE COD
The Little Blue Cod, a story that was written for the children, contains remarks and tips for the adults within the lines as well. The Little Blue Cod, while sleeping alongside her mom amongst the seaweed, dreams about the fall of the moonshine down to their house just like thousands of other blue cods and tells her mother about his desire to leave. His reply to the question of "why?" from his mother was this; "I am wondering the place, where the river ends, it's been bugging me for months now. I haven’t come up with a clear answer to this question to this day and I am sleepless at nights. I made my decision, I want to go find where the river ends and what is out there and in other places" There are 3 characteristics of this little blue cod that distinguishes him from his fellow cods. They are;
1. He thinks,
2. He has knowledge, 3. He has will.
Behrengi points out that The Little Blue Cod had always showed those characteristics, he shaped his life in this direction and ultimately he reached the eternity with an individual rebellion.
With the loving family life that is depicted in the beginning of the story, the everyday characters from life are introduced. As the Little Cod speaks with his mother, we remember the conversations of Ulduz with the crows. The deep thoughts of Behrengi emerge at this point. The Little Cod says the following to an elderly fish, who witnesses the discussion that he is having with his mother; "I am tired of the usual and daily wonderings. I don't want to keep on doing this, ı am not deceiving myself. One day I will open my eyes as an old fish like you and I don't want to be a weeping fish on that very day.
Facing such a rebellion, the mother of the little blue cod, just like any other conservative mother, tries to dissuade her son but fails to do so. Mother says; there is no beginning or end to this stream of water, that is all there is. The little blue cod, as a response to his mother, says; "Mother, does everything need an end? Like the day and night...I understood that all fish complain about having wasting their life for vain. His mother becomes desperate against all this and tries to employ the help of her neighbors but to no avail. The little blue cod has already decided to leave.
The fact that the little blue cod thinks led him to have a mystical mentality. Indeed, the little cod is not actually aware of what he is doing but he knows one thing; not to embrace and accept its own situation. There are two paths, lying before him; one, staying and searching and two, move to the unknown and look into the undetermined. The Little Blue Cod chooses the latter. By putting all the traditions, customs and the common ways aside; he decided to set himself a course for a voyage that he has no information about. He believes that he will, though slowly, pick up all the truth on the way. Those who analyze the action of the typology of this character considered his acts as;
✓ Adventurism! The petit bourgeoisie’s desire for adventures, ✓ Revolutionist romanticism without any concrete foundation, ✓ An instant act of insanity due to inferiority complex,
✓ By collaborating with the foreign enemies, sedition against the national security and an attempt to disrupt the order.
This new character that Behrengi created demolished the logical approach towards the preservation of the status quo. The most important feature of the story is the creation of a new character that found life with courage and heroism.
According to the other habitants of the sea, what he Little Blue Cod does is destabilizing the order. Their sole desires were eating, sleeping and reproducing. They only think about their belly and below the belly. Because thinking is not a necessary act for them. Thinking disturbs their fragile nerves and would probably render them sleepless. Maybe when some of their blood cells fell ill, their lifespan may get several seconds shorter. The old fishes that donned themselves the role of the guards of the order want to kill the Little Blue Cod but his comrades save the Little Blue Cod. At that moment, his mother cries with her hands covering her face. “Look what happened to us! What am I going to do now?” The Little Blue Cod approaches to his mother and says “Mother, don’t cry. Actually cry for those miserable fish.”
The Little Blue Cod, by observing the emptiness of the lives of the frogs, who think that the world is comprised of the small pond, in which they live in, and of the crabs that live off by eating the offspring of those frogs, proceeds his own way with resolution. He gets advices from the lizard along the way and picks up a dagger in order to escape from pelican’s trap. At this point, the lizard is presented to us not only as someone that provides plain and vain information to his student but as a good teacher, who gives valuable information against dangers and who assists him to reach to the dagger, made of the thorns, grown under the pond. The Little Blue Cod from Samed Behrengi, soon as it was published, attracted the attention of the intellectual and revolutionist circles and made a mark in the world. Just like his other works, the story was translated to Turkish as well. Famous folk poet Zulfu Livaneli wrote his song “Şah Bir Yana Taht Bir Yana” for the memory of Behrengi. At that stage, new stories and scenarios were written over his works that were translated to foreign languages. American director Andrew Stanton later stole from Behrengi’s work and made up the “Finding Nemo” As a matter of fact, this Nemo was nobody but the Little Blue Cod from Bahrengi. This displays one of the best examples of the American cultural imperialism.
3. AS WE CONCLUDE
The advices of the lizard as well as the dagger that he gave to the little blue cod as a present were the biggest help against the challenges that little blue cod faced to reach its target. Behrengi, with his unique lifestyle had become one of the symbols of the history of the history of the revolution and resistance in Iran and in the region as an individual, who thinks, questions and even acts in the society just like a little blue cod.
The role of Behrengi in the theoretical establishment process of the organization called “Organization of Iranian People's Fedaee Guerrillas”, which was an important part of the leftist movement in Iran, as well as his contributions and the fact that he was directly present in the founding cadre are a matters that should be analyzed as a standalone chapter, outside the realm of our study here. His contributions and contact especially lead the Organization to initiate an armed uprising against the ruling monarchy of that time. Him directly involving the foundation of the Azerbaijani organization of the Guerillas has a special place in Iran’s revolutionary history. Mahmud Naderi, in his work titled “‘’The People’s Fadaee Guerrillas’, discussed the formation and the history of this organization in a highly detailed manner and shed some light onto the history in this regard.
All the scholars, who study and research the revolutionary Movement in Iran and who wrote a book on this very topic, underlined how Samed Behrengi served as an example for the masses with his works, life and actions and how he planted new sprouts of the revolution with each of his stories and how he caused social movements. His life and work was analyzed in various books and presented to the attention to the public and to the authorities. Those works include “Samed became immortal” from the famous Iranian writer, Ali Eşref Dervişiyan; “The worldview of the little blue cod” from the
famous writer Menüçehrn Hezarhani; “The review of two of Samed Behrengi’s stories” from the writer Bagir Sadri, “Face to face or shoulder to shoulder” from the famous playwriter Gulam Hüseyin Saidi; “The Life and Death of Samed Behrengi” from the biography writer İsmail Cemşidi; “The rebels on a cause: The failure of the leftist movement in Iran”from the investigative writer Maziyar Behruz and “The letters of Samed Behrengi” from his brother Esed Behrengi.
His stories and the lessons taken from those stories were adopted by the circles that are interested in the revolutionist literature. An author in “Ekşi Sözlük” (An online site that is similar to the urban dictionary) comments about Behrengi in this way; “The great İranian – Azeri writer, who I believed determined the color of the studying children and who was even a determinant in their later life. The Behrengi effect is so powerful that you can guess whether a person read Behrengi in his / her childhood or not after getting know that person a bit. And with an interesting kind of instinct, you place those, who read Behrengi, to a different place in your life and you don’t get mistaken by that either. A child, who has read Behrengi, never equals to another child who has not. Even the physical properties of Behrengi books leave deep marks in a person’s mind. “
Unfortunately, the works of this great author were banned in our country during a certain period. The Administration of the 12th of September Post – Coup banned the sales of the works of the writer to persons below 18 years of age pursuant to “1117 Protection of Minors from Sexually Explicit Materials Act” in line of the decree of the General Directorate of Security Affairs Department of Press Affairs (Dated 16.03.1982 / 51912 – 51913). However, no oppressive regime such as the Administration of the 12th of September Post – Coup or any other shall be successful on setting up barriers on the ideas of Behrengi and the thinkers, who think similar to Behrengi and who lead the way like him by any laws or decrees. The historical facts prove this point.
And at last, I would like to offer my opinion on the resting place of the writer. Unfortunately, the tomb of this great writer is located in Imamiye Cemetery in Tabriz Province of Iran’s East Azerbaijani Region in the middle of many other tombs and is in bad shape with no maintenance. A rusted metal plate that shows his personal background gives sorrow to those, who see it. With my deepest wish for the maintenance of his tomb and building a cenotaph that is worthy of his greatness, naming one of the largest universities of Iran as Samed Behrengi, erecting his statues to squares and parks in order to enable the future generations to get to know him better, placing his stories n the school books and finally with my wish for giving him the value that he deserves, I would like to conclude this work with a line that can be considered as a masterpiece from the Little Blue Cod: “So easily the death
may call on me now, However I should not go to meet the death as long as I breathe. I need to keep up living as much as possible. Naturally I will face the death one day, that is unavoidable but that is not that important. What is important is what kind of impact my life or death will leave on the life of others.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BEHRENGİ, E., Namehaye Samed Behrengi (The Letters of Samed Behrengi), Emirkebir Publishing House, Tehran 1978.
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