Page 149 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

Restructuring city and state 129

Hierarchies of wealth were, however, turned upside down. Owner-
occupiers of small properties were often forced to sell their possessions.
During one unsuccessful attempt to exact taxes from a group of artisans
and shopkeepers, the municipal secretary noted with disappointment that:
‘the baladiyyah is wasting time in listing them in its tax registers. These
days it is difficult to distinguish rich from poor.’ By 1934 the threat of
widespread unrest forced the municipality to cancel outstanding tax pay-
ments and to exempt from taxation diving communities, artisans and
39
labourers.
In another important respect the pearling crisis tested the new munic-
ipal regime; it heightened existing social tensions and popular discontent.
Municipal legislation had already caused a measure of resentment soon
after the establishment of the baladiyyah. The first by-laws issued in 1920
triggered protests from the poorest neighbourhoods of the inner city. The
majlis was forced to abolish various decrees which fixed punishments for
municipal offenders and enforced the report of cases of infectious disease
to the authorities. Popular petitions voiced deep-seated fears of the
resumption of the old system of al-fidawiyyah and expressed the social
stigma attached to the exposure of disease in public. 40 After 1927, the
reduction of the wages of municipal employees and of the police as a result
of the financial crisis favoured corruption and revived a general distrust
against the administration. Anxiety over the abuse of municipal authority
was to a great extent justified. In an attempt to increase revenue the
municipality started to calculate the wages of tax-collectors on the basis
of the sums they brought to the treasury. Only in late 1933 the majlis
started to scrutinise systematically tax registers, following protests staged
by residents in front of the headquarters of the baladiyyah. 41
The socio-economic profile of municipal employees contributed to
accentuate the weaknesses of the apparatus of urban administration and
increased the hardship of the population. Municipal guards (na’turs) often
joined the force only for a few months in order to supplement their meagre
income as workers in the pearling industry. Together with the police

39
MMBM, 2 and 30 Jumada al-Thaniyyah 1353/11 September and 9 October 1934, R/15/
2/1921 IOR; Political Agent Bahrain to Belgrave, 4 June 1932, R/15/2/1913; I‘lan
Baladiyyah al-Manamah, n. 9 of 1353, R/15/2/1921 IOR.
40
R/15/2/1218 IOR: I‘lan Hukumah al-Bahrayn, 20 July 1920/3 Dhu al-Qa‘dah 1338; I‘lan
Baladiyyah al-Manamah, 12 Dhu al-Hijjah 1338/27 August 1920, and 8 and 17 Dhu al-
Qa‘dah 1338/24 July and 2 August 1920; Municipality to Political Agent Bahrain, 24
Ramadan 1347/6 March 1929 and 17 Shawwal 1347/12 April 1929.
41
Between the years 1348 (1929–30) and 1349 (1930–1) municipal revenue and expendi-
ture almost halved. ‘Administrative Report for the Years 1926–1937’ in The Bahrain
Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970, vol. II, p. 43. MMBM, 25 Sha‘ban and 16 Dhu
al-Hijjah 1353/3 December 1934 and 21 March 1935, R/15/2/1921 IOR.