Page 115 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

Bahamah agitation for reform, 1935 103

confidential.
No.C/43 of 1936.

Office of the Political Resident in
the Persian Gulf,
Camp, BAHRAIN.
Dated the 18th March 1936.

From The Hon'ble Lieut.-Colonel T.C.Fowle,C.B.E.,
Political Resident in the Persian Gulf,

To The Foreign Secretary to the Government of India,
New Delhi.

Sub.1 eot« Baharinah in Bahrain.

ah
Sir,
I .have the honojif* to enoloee copies of two letters from
Colonel: Looh, No .C/1&2-1.b/6, datod the 18th February 1936, and
No.C/160, datod the 6th March 1936, on the subject of unrest

amongst the Baharinah subjects of the Shaikh of Bahrain*

2. Tho situation briefly is as follows. In 1780 the Al
Khallfah, (the present ruling family of Bahrain), migrated from
tho Arabian mainland, and took the Bahrain Islands, of which
the original inhabitants were the Baharinah. The latter are

Shi*ah, and are looked down on by the Al Khallfah and the Arab
portion of the population, (as Colonel Loch points out in
paragraph 2 of hie first letter), who have in the past oppress­
ed them. Since the abdication of the last Shaikh their
position has much improved owing to our influence and the
tolerance of the present Ruler.

3. There has never been any attempt at a census of the

Buhrain population but it is believed to be some 120,000 or
more. Of this the Al Khallfah family number perhaps two

hundred. Tho other olemonto according to a very rough estimate
which io all that is possible, might bo as follows. Arab
Sunnio /