Page 165 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

Restructuring city and state 145

supplementing his personal income with a percentage on sales. As con-
trol of the market proved to be extremely problematic, the Directorate of
Customs and the municipality issued licenses to several individuals in
order to ensure the payment of baladiyyah tax. Qutb al-Din and his son,
who took over the business after his father’s death in 1949, continued to
campaign relentlessly for their rights, making frequent appeals to the
81
council.
By the end of World War II the local markets had remained econom-
ically and politically the stronghold of the Al Khalifah in the inner city.
If on the one hand the merchants sitting in the majlis endeavoured to
consolidate municipal authority in order to raise revenue, on the other
the council secured the old partnership between the merchant class
and the rulers. The impact of this alliance on the workforce was mixed.
While the municipality advanced fairly successfully the centralisation of
tax-collection, the position of middlemen and brokers became increas-
ingly precarious. At the same time municipal intervention provided a
degree of protection to Baharna artisans and retailers and eventually
contributed to the awakening of their political consciousness.

Elections and the market place: urban conservatism,
nationalist politics and the collapse of the
municipal regime

By the late 1930s the local markets became an arena where sectarian
grievances against Al Khalifah landlords intersected with emerging class
solidarities. Both, moreover, began to be expressed in the form of labour
mobilisation. Opposition to the municipality became part of a repertoire
of popular dissent which relied on informal networks of political repre-
sentation. After 1931, the creation of new professional groups under the
aegis of the baladiyyah through the issue of licences contributed to
increasing the influence of informal associations of Shi‘i workers, some
of which gravitated around the funeral houses of the inner city. Bakers
lobbied the majlis throughout the 1930s and 1940s to reduce the price of
flour, and on several occasions raised the price of bread. Even municipal
employees, many of whom were Baharna, staged a general strike in 1948,
demanding higher wages. The labour effervescence of the municipal era
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R/15/2/1921 IOR: Acting Secretary of Manama Municipality to Shaykh ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Isa
Al Khalifah, 5 Safar 1353/19 May 1934; Political Agent Bahrain to Director of Customs,
20 Safar 1353/3 June 1934; MMBM, 22 Safar 1353/5 June 1934; Municipal Council to
Political Agent Bahrain, 8 Rabi‘ al-Awwal 1353/20 June 1934; minutes by Assistant
Political Agent Bahrain, 20 May 1934. MMBM, 7 Jumada al-Ula 1356/16 July 1937,
R/15/2/1924 IOR; MMBM, 19 Safar 1359/28 March 1940, R/15/2/1925 IOR.