Criticism of the Government in the Folk Songs of the Qajar Era, the Pre-Constitutional Period

The critique of the state and ruling elites is an important part of the political life of the masses, but the political action of the descendants in pre-constitutional era, with the exception of the rare cases of rebellion and riots, is reflected in their popular culture. Meanwhile, song is one of the most common genre of folk culture. The masses had to raise their protest or political views with simple or complex camouflages at the community level in order to remain immune from the harassment by the government agents. Oral capacities of folk culture provided them with a simple camouflage, and in sophisticated camouflage, taking advantage of the allegory and password, they created songs that made it possible for them to have both political and harmless readings. The research tries to answer these questions, what was the themes of the political folk songs in the pre-constitution era during the Qajar era, and what methods were used to cover these themes in songs? The premise of the research is that the theme of these songs was mostly based on the negation of the constructive elements of the "public view of government." What is more, the government's covert threat and litigation were the other themes of these songs. The masses used to cover these themes through methods such as subtilized threats, symbolic reversal, the memorial of good natured ruler and naïve king love. The conceptual framework of the research is “Secret narrations” theory of James C. Scott.