White Revolution

The White Revolution (Persian: انقلاب سفید, romanized: Enqelâb-e Sefid) or the Shah and People Revolution (Persian: انقلاب شاه و مردم, romanized: Enqelâb-e Šâh o Mardom) was a series of reforms to modernize the Imperial State of Iran launched on 26 January 1963 by the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and ended with his overthrow in 1979. Among the elements of the revolution were land reform where landlords were compensated for their land by shares of privatized state-owned factories, expanded road, rail, and air network, dam and irrigation projects, work to eradicate diseases such as malaria, promotion of industrial growth and profit-sharing schemes for workers, enfranchisement of women, nationalization of forests and pastures, literacy and health corps for isolated rural areas.

The bulk of the program was aimed at Iran's peasantry while redistributing the aristocrat landlord class wealth down to working class Iranians. Through land reform, the Shah hoped to ally himself with the peasantry in the countryside, and to sever their ties with the aristocracy in the city.

In order to legitimize the White Revolution, the Shah called for a national referendum in early 1963 in which 5,598,711 people voted for the reforms, and 4,115 voted against the reforms, though the referendum was boycotted by the opposition to the Shah.

In subsequent decades, per capita income for Iranians greatly increased, and petroleum export revenue fueled an enormous increase in state funding for industrial development projects, economic growth, rapid urbanization, spread of literacy, and dissolution of Iran's feudalist customs.

However, the revolution also aroused the antagonism of the Ulama (Islamic clergy) led by Ruhollah Khomeini, the future leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, who opposed the erosion of their traditional bases of power, and met with difficulties from a high failure rate for new farms and an exodus of agricultural workers to Iran's major cities.

Reforms

The Shah had intended it to be a non-violent regeneration of Iranian society through economic and social reforms, with the ultimate long-term aim of transforming Iran into a global economic and industrial power. The Shah introduced economic concepts such as profit-sharing for workers and initiated massive government-financed heavy industry projects, as well as the nationalization of forests and pastureland. Most important, however, were the land reform programs which saw the traditional landed elites of Iran lose much of their influence and power.