TEHRAN – Iran marks the national day against British colonialism annually on Shahrivar 12 (which fell on September 3 this year), commemorating the martyrdom anniversary of Rais Ali Delvari, a national hero who organized popular resistance against the British troops which had invaded Iran in 1915.

Rais Ali Delvari was born in 1882 in Delvar, a small village in the southwestern Bushehr Province; he was martyred in 1915 at the age of 33 in a fierce clash with British aggressors in Bushehr.

Though Persia (Iran) declared the state of neutrality in World War I, it became divided into northern and southern spheres of influence under the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1907 as the country was deemed as a great source of interest due to its significant oil reserve and strategic geography.

The treaty, however, was widely viewed by Iranians as having made the nation into nothing more than a British and Russian protectorate, so countless local uprisings occurred against the British and Russian forces from north to the south.

In northern Iran, Jangal Movement of Gilan was the main indigenous resistance against the foreign occupiers, and in southern parts, Tangistani amongst other tribes constituted the main resisting power against the British Empire.

On the eve of World War I, Germany established the Intelligence Bureau for the East for the Central Powers, intending to promote and sustain anti-colonial movements and nationalist agitations in British India, Persia, and Egypt. Wilhelm Wassmuss led the bureau’s operations in Persia seeking the goal to free Persia from the Allied Powers’ influence and to create a wedge between Russia and the British forces.

That was the time when Delvari with the help of Wassmuss was formulating a general Anti-British uprising in Iran. The Iranian hero was, ultimately, killed by Anglo-Indian forces following months of bloody clashes.

That was a brief story of why Shahrivar 12th has been designated as the National Day of Combat against British Colonialism in Iran.

With the aim of acquainting Iranian children with the national hero, Delvari’s life story and his struggles for freedom were introduced to the latest edition of the fifth-grade school books last school year (September 23, 2020).

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