Page 140 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

120 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

independence of India. In matters of domestic policy, the British admin-
istration gave precedence to the oil and security alliance with the new
government. These concerns limited the scope of imperial intervention in
the internal affairs of the islands to matters concerning extraterritorial
jurisdiction, public order and, naturally, the oil industry.
In ideological terms, a new focus on social advancement and welfare for
the indigenous population supported, and to a certain extent provided a
justification for, the new aims and objectives of informal empire. It also
replaced the moral values of the ‘benevolent’ imperialism which had
inspired the rhetoric of reform in the 1920s. Not only was the well-being
of the natives a guarantee of public order, particularly after the Egyptian
revolution of 1952 and the emergence of radical Arab nationalism, but it
also fulfilled the moral imperatives which increasingly underpinned the
British imperial enterprise in the Middle East in the era of decolonisation.
Soon after World War II, the focus of the political discussion shifted from
the suitability of supporting Bahrain’s modernisation to the entitlement of
individuals to share the benefits of oil revenue. The debate on agriculture,
which continued throughout the 1930s and 1940s, is quite indicative of
this change of emphasis. For instance, the uncertain financial prospects of
Bahrain in the early oil era raised concerns about the future diet of the
population. As oil royalties exceeded customs receipts for the first time in
1936, the British Agent continued to press for the resumption of the
agricultural scheme, which had been abandoned in 1932 as a result of
insufficient funds. 19
As the unofficial agent of informal empire, Belgrave pursued his own
rhetoric, often distancing himself from the different generations of British
imperial administrators posted in Manama. Remarkably, during his long
career on the payroll of the ruler of Bahrain his strong, but often rigid,
sense of duty seldom created split loyalties in his role as broker between
the agency, the ruler and the population. While displaying some of the
patronising traits of the British agents, he embraced wholeheartedly the
rhetoric of development before it became the established doctrine of
the British imperial order in the 1940s. Since 1926, Belgrave advocated
the emancipation of the local population along modern lines, a belief
which stemmed from his daily contact with individuals from all walks of
life as head of the Land Department, the Courts and the Police. In this
sense, Belgrave’s ‘civilising mission’ was a personal undertaking rooted in
his years of service in the Colonial Office before his arrival in Manama.
Ultimately, however, the advisor remained part of the infrastructure of

19
Political Agent Bahrain to British Resident Bushehr, 17 November 1936, R/15/2/807
IOR. On Bahrain’s agricultural development see al-Tajir, Bahrain 1920–1945, pp. 162–9.