The Origin of the Concept of Resistance in Iran

In this research, by employing the theoretical method and model of Thomas Spriggens in the framework of the sociology of cognition, the origin of the concept of ​​resistance and the manner of its inception and institutionalization in the mentality of the Iranian society has been analyzed. Thus, the present research seeks to answer this fundamental question; what factors have played an effective role in the formation, development and institutionalization of the concept of ​​resistance in Iran? The researchers’ approach is descriptive-analytical and the crisis theory of Spriggens has been used to analyze the data. The results delineate that the Iranian society has always been faced with despotism, increasing intervention of the great powers and the violation of its national independence by the foreigners. In response to the despotism and the crisis of independence, the elites, intellectuals (religious and non-religious) proposed indigenousness as a manifestation of the concept of ​​resistance. The clergy portrayed indigenousness in the framework of political Islam and the nationalists portrayed indigenousness in the framework of the Iranian nationalism as the ideal political system. The “resistance” against despotism and domination of the great powers is considered as the common point of the two discourses of indigenousness. Eventually, these two discourses became relatively compatible with the leadership and guidance of the great revolutionary and Islamic reformer, Imam Khomeini, in the form and context of the Shiite religion, and the Iranian nationalism came under the model of the political Islam derived from the Islamic Revolution of Iran and has been conceptualized in connection with that. Therefore, the concept of ​​resistance is a historical, situational and contextual phenomenon and the inception of the concept of ​​resistance in the Iranian society can be considered as the result of the clash of thought, reality, dialectical relationship and their reciprocal influence.