Persian logbooks Of India; The First Narrators Of British Constitutionalism (The Case Study Of the Shegarfnamey-E Velayat, Tohfatolalam and Masir -E Talebi)

The wars between Iran and Russia in nineteenth century, are an important historical milestone  which made Iranians aware of their backwardness. The most important way to deal with this situation, was to obtain the democratic achievements of the modern western civilization and the transition from authoritarian government to a law abiding and obligated government. Of course, the background of Iranian ,s awareness of the consequences of modern civilization and especially idea of ​​constitutionalism, goes back to earlier times. The Study of Persian logbooks of India, although not published in Iran and apparently had no direct effect on the political awakening of the elites and the masses of Iranian people in the years leading up to constitutionalism, shows that India under British colonization and works of those Iranians who were living there, were important sources for Iranians to know modern civilization including British constitutionalism. And what was the connection between the rule of constitutional system and the progress of the country and the welfare and comfort of the people? The following article try to answer the question that what was the understanding of authors of the three logbooks, Shegarfnamey-E Velayat by Etesam al-Din, Tohfatolalam by Abdul Latif Shushtari and Masir -E Talebi by Mirza Aboutalebkhan, from British constitutionalism and what was the connection between the rule of constitutional system with the progress of the country and the welfare of the people. Thus, the purpose of this article is to show that before the Iran-Russia wars and the Iranians awareness of their backwardness, a kind of attention to the progress and reflection of the idea of ​​constitutionalism and the necessity of its establishment in Islamic countries, especially Iran, in the works of Persian writers in India can be found. The three mentioned logbooks can be considered as the first narrators of the idea of ​​constitutionalism in Persian. An important features of these writings is that they did not see the issue of progress and constitutionalism in the West, including Britain, only in terms of concepts such as their degeneration or backwardness. And so their main content is a sign of the mentality confrontation of some Iranians with the developments of the modern world which focuses more on institutional differences and current procedures, rather than on understanding its intellectual and thought-provoking foundations. Therefore, understanding the contents of these logbooks is important and necessary for the analysis of the process that the Iranians mind and thought has started in the face of the new civilization and the way it has passed. 

The research method of the present article is descriptive-analytical in order to focus on the texts of these logbooks and understanding the issue and their concern to explain the perspectives of the authors of these works about the evolution of modern world and in particular the narrative of British constitutionalism and survey the comparative study between Islamic and Eastern countries especially Iran with the developments and events of the modern world from the perspective of the authors of these logbooks.In this regard, the method of collecting information, is library method and based on the text of the three mentioned logbooks, with the emphasis on clarifying the desired intellectual principles by the authors of the logbooks, which is specifically based on their descriptive discourses which is done according to the British constitutional rules and regulations.

 Among the three case study logbooks despite some commonalities, Including in view of the achievements of the new world there are also differences, especially with the British Constitutionalism. Etesam Al-Din describes constitutionalism with traditional literature and concepts, and states that the king's authority, separation of powers, and the legal and democratic exercise of power are the main features of the British political system. Also Mirza Aboutaleb pays special attention to the customary nature of the laws and the separation of religion from politics in Britain. (Isfahani, ibid:251). Compared to the other two authors, and despite the fact that Shushtari did not see Britain and its political institutions, including the parliament directly and closely, he pays more attention to the British constitutional achievements and using them for Iran. On the one hand, he attributes the creation of constitutionalism to the eradication of the influence and authority of the Roman Church and British religious independence, as well as the involvement of natural and Western philosophers (Shushtari:254-251). On the other hand, there is a direct relationship between the establishment of constitutionalism and the progress and power of Britain and the welfare of the people and the provision of the rights of the British people (ibid: 259, 277-276, 284). In this way, he criticizes the authoritarian system of Iran and considers the rule of constitutionalism as a condition for Iran's progress and its empowerment (ibid:339). 

Although the understanding of these logbooks from constitutionalism was not based on analysis of the theoretical foundations of modern European political thought and none of them had a clear discourse on the advancement of Muslims or Iranians, but they reflected some aspects of the way which Muslims and Iranians confront with the manifestations of modern European civilization. And for the first time, some modern institutions, as well as the content of some modern concepts, are presented to their audience. It seems that in addition to their traditional affiliations in not presenting a positive and specific account of British constitutionalism, such as being likely to be the headline of the Iranian people and officials, their political attitudes and dependence on the institutions of power in India, including the British has also been so effective that it has even created a kind of empathetic view to the British in a significant part of these works. Also, the authors of three mentioned logbooks were not yet in the reactionary and helpless atmosphere caused by Iran's defeat of Russia and the pressure of the modern civilization, and therefore it is natural that such logbooks should not have been written with the concern of progress and within the framework or under the influence of the discourse of progressivism and modernity and with the knowledge of the foundations of modern European political thought. In their point of view, the West, including the United Kingdom, was not seen as the only model for progressing to be compared with Iran's degeneration and backwardness. Therefore, they can be considered as narrators who, before proposing the idea of ​​degeneration and backwardness of Iran and forming the concern for progress, presented a narrative of the British constitutionalism. This shortcoming does not necessarily diminish the importance of these texts, and the value of the narration of this group of travel writers should not be overlooked. The acquaintance with their point of view, and of course the attention to the logic of subsequent developments, points out that the issue of Iranian backwardness was largely raised over time, especially through the observation of inefficiencies and failures such as Iran's defeat by Russia. And apparently those inside Iran became more central to those who were in areas such as India. In addition, a significant portion of Iranians who later became acquainted with the developments of the modern world gradually found a greater tendency to understand the normative nature of thought contained in the text of modern developments. What was almost absent in the eyes of travel writers in Inida, who were mostly political officials, that they were more concerned with the hard-line and institutional dimensions of change. In addition of some factors like the lack of translation and publication of logbooks at that time in Iran or the locative and temporal distance, perhaps this is the difference in perspective that makes it impossible to speak directly and positively influence of this group of Indian Iranians on Iranian constitutionalism. However, these texts show some marks of the first encounters of the Iranian thought with new developments. Perhaps these works can be considered conceptually and theoretically in the interval between the creation of astonishment, such as those who were later encountered to it such as Mirza Abolhassan Khan Ilchi, and the beginning of reflections on the kind of question that Abbas Mirza asked why this is our situation, and what should be done?