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148 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

order. On the other, sectarian tensions assumed a new nationalist dimen-
sion as the rights of ‘Arab nationals’ entered the vocabulary of sectarian
grievances. In March 1951, as a result of a quarrel over the demolition of a
number of shops, five Baharna counsellors resigned and appealed directly
to the government on behalf of the workforce. They accused Shaykh
Salman, the owner of the shops, of acting against national interests by
87
letting the premises to ‘foreigners’, particularly to Indian retailers.
After this episode the government was forced to dissolve the municipal
council. Despite several calls for fresh elections in the following years, the
Municipality, which continued to be boycotted by both Baharna leaders
and national activists, was run by a close circle of Sunni nominees. 88 In
this period the baladiyyah, along with other government institutions and
foreign enterprises, became the target of a new type of popular militancy.
During the nationalist demonstrations in Manama between 1951 and
1957 (which will be examined in the next chapter) the municipality was
attacked by demonstrators. The markets, meanwhile, continued to be the
focus of labour disputes. In March 1956, the municipal building was
besieged by a crowd of protesters who demonstrated against a tax-
collector who had forcibly removed a villager for selling his merchandise
outside the designated areas (see Figure 10). 89
Ultimately nationalist mobilisation combined with the grievances of the
Shi‘i workforce sealed the fate of municipal government. After 1953 al-
Ha’yah al-Tanfidhiyyah al-‘Uliya (The High Executive Committee), the
populist cross-sectarian organisation based in Manama which led the
nationalist movement throughout Bahrain, became the fiercest critic of
the municipal order. The orchestration of electoral boycotts was an inte-
gral part of the activities of al-Ha’yah, whose communiqués to the pop-
ulation depicted the baladiyyah as an instrument of reactionary
90
government policies. After the disbandment of the nationalist move-
ment in 1957, the municipality continued to be run by government
appointees. The first local elections were attempted in 1965 but only
380 people out of 5,000 eligible to vote went to the polls. 91 In the era of

87
Political Residency Bahrain to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 2 June 1951, n. 73
and enclosures, FO 371/91624 PRO; ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn ila al-
manfa, 2nd edn (Beirut: Dar al-Kunuz al-‘Arabiyyah, 2002), pp. 40–2.
88
The Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970: ‘Annual Report for the Year 1370’,
vol. IV, p. 31; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1371’, vol. IV, p. 29; ‘Annual Report for the
Year 1372’, vol. V, p. 30; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1955’, vol. V, p. 37; ‘Annual Report
for the Year 1956’, vol. V, p. 82.
89
Belgrave Diaries, 17 March 1956, AWDU; al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn, p. 104.
90
For one of these communiqués see al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn, p. 131.
91
Minutes, 19 December 1957, FO 371/126897 PRO; Political Agent Bahrain to Foreign
Office, 16 August 1965, FO 371/179790 PRO.