Abstract
Ayatollah Golpayegani's opposition along with other maraji (religious references) to land reforms, state-provincial association bill, and White Revolution Referendum made the Pahlavi government aiming at targeting the independence of the seminary, seeking to weaken the seminary and the clergy. The violent attack on Feyzīyeh in Nowruz 1342 was the beginning of the actions and plans that the government followed in the future months and years to weaken the power of the clerical institution in opposition to its plans and arrangements by eliminating the seminary's independence. Because of the government's interference in the seminary's affairs, Ayatollah Golpayegani, who had not forgotten the difficult days of the seminary in Reza Shah Era, took a critical and at the same time cautious approach and became an activist person to take care of seminary so that its independence would not be damaged.
Based on the structure-agent theory, this article seeks to answer the question, how the seminary's independence belief influenced Ayatollah Golpayegani's activism against the Pahlavi government's interferences in the seminary's affairs? The important achievement of this article can be seen in the fact that the belief of the seminary's independence was an important factor in Ayatollah Golpayegani's activism against the interventionist actions of the Pahlavi government in the seminary. The purpose of this activism was to maintain the seminary's independence, so that seminary can train missionaries outside the sphere of influence and power of the government so as to prevent the loss of the legacy that his predecessors had worked hard for it.
Keywords: Ayatollah Golpayegani, seminary, seminary's independence, clergy, Pahlavi government.
 
Introduction
Throughout the history, Shia clergies have always emphasized on preservation of "seminary's independence". Despite this fact, in some periods such as Safavid era, the kings had interfered in the affairs of seminaries, (Kaempfer 1981: 141-142) but some of them maintained their independence from the government. (Fatāhi Ardakāni 2015: 162-169) In the contemporary era, clergies and maraji (religious references) paid special attention to maintaining the independence of seminary. (Mohtas̆amipur 1997: 135) For example, Ayatollah Haj Sheikh Abdul-Karim Haeri Yazdi established the Qom seminary independent from government and landowners. (Karīmi Jahromi 1993: 50) This independence brought seminary such a power during the time of Ayatollah Borujerdi that Mohammadreza shah was forced to abandon land reforms. (Pahlavi 1966: 15) After Ayatollah Borujerdi’s death, the government tried to weaken seminary and clergy to operate its modernization plans. In opposition to these plans, Ayatollah Golpayegani, focused on preserving seminary and its independence from government's interference and he started activism in various ways to preserve this historical legacy.
 
Materials & Methods
This article information has been collected by library and documentary methods to use them for qualitative data analysis. By this we were able to indicate how government's interference on the affairs of the traditional class of the society can follow this class reaction to maintain its historical situation. The question of this research is how the "seminary's independence" had affected the activism of Ayatollah Golpayegani against the Pahlavi's government interference in seminary. The research hypothesis indicates that relying on the intellectual tradition of "the seminary's independence", Ayatollah Golpayegani was trying to maintain the seminary from Pahlavi government's interference to abuse clergy and religion. Using the structure-agent method, this research seeks to understand the relationship between the activism of agent (Ayatollah Golpayegani) in the position of an active, independent and willed actor, against the interventions and plans of the structure (Pahlavi government). In explaining the problems of social sciences, the structure-agent theory is a competitor of two other theories, one of which emphasizes on the priority of the agent over the structure and the other one on the priority of the structure over the agent. The agent structure theory is based on the dualism of structure and agent and considering the two-way relationship between structure and agent, it examines social issues. (Haghighat, 2010: 148)
 
Discussion & Result
By explaining the historical concept of the seminary's independence, for the first time, this article examines the activisms of Ayatollah Golpayegani regarding the preservation of seminary's independence against the interferences of the Pahlavi government. With opposition of maraji (religious references) and clerics to some plans of Mohammadreza shah's modernization, government ordered the agenda to weaken the seminary by controlling its affairs. Dismissal of the students from Feyzīyeh and Dar al-Shafa Schools under pretext of repairing, creating parallel institutions such as Dar al-Tarwij and Sepah Danesh to seminary, approving the conscription law for sending students to military service, and interfering in seminary's educational affairs by conducting students' exams were measures that the government did to interfere in seminary's affairs.
Ayatollah Golpayegani was trying to maintain seminary's independent in study of religious sciences from the government. (Ayatollah Golpayegani 2006: Volume 3, 56) He considered a seminary be efficient, when that is independent and immune from the influence of the government and other external forces. (Saberiye Hamdāni, 2005: 162) Based on this, his activism with a critical and at the same time cautious approach, was concentrated on maintaining seminary's independence against the interferences of government. Ayatollah Golpayegani activisms to seminary's independence can be evaluated in political, social and cultural aspects. His political activists to maintain seminary's independence, were based on methods such as opposition, protest and negotiation. Using the capacity of clergy and students was the basis of his social activism. By sensitizing them to the seminary's independence and making them aware about the government's interference goals to seminary's affair, he could use their capacity to deal with these interferences. In the cultural field, he focused on strengthening the role of seminary in the education of students, so on this basis, he conducted student exams, developed a curriculum for the seminary, and established new seminaries.
Conclusion
The investigations in this research shows that after incidents like violent attack on Feyzīyeh, the suppression of 15th Khordad uprising and numerous interventions in the seminary, Ayatollah Golpayegani, by adopting a cautious and at the same time critical politics, focused on maintain seminary's independence. In order to attain such goal, he tried to prevent the destruction of this legacy through political, social and cultural activism. Giving speeches and issuing announcements, contacting government officials from the court, prime minister, ministers and heads of the departments by telegram, letter, or phone, sending or accepting special representative, refraining from attending congregational prayers, consulting other maraji (religious references), communication with clerics and students by creating restrictions or creating opportunities for them, organizing the scientific-educational seminary affairs by performing examinations independent from government and making them methodical, and establishing the University of Islamic Sciences for students to reach the degree of ijtihad were the most important activisms that Ayatollah Golpayegani used them to guard seminary and maintain its independence against the government's intervening plans.