Page 171 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

5 ‘Disorder’, political sociability and the
evolution of the urban public sphere

The previous two chapters have explained the evolution of politics and
society in Manama before and after the discovery of oil, focussing on the
role of networks of patronage, of imperial and overseas connections and,
after 1919, of municipal government. This chapter traces the evolution of
urban political sociability in the same period through the lens of civic
strife, popular politics and ideological contestation. These were the
‘unruly’ activities which reshuffled power between urban groups, and
between them and the state. Key episodes of unrest and the performance
of Muharram rituals are analysed as contexts of public engagement and as
evidence of the changing relationship between the body politic of
Manama and the government of Bahrain. Not only did they bring new
leaders, social groups and political allegiances into the arena of urban
politics but also fostered the growth of new forms of community and
public consciousness. Muharram rituals, in particular, marked the evolu-
tion of Shi‘i popular politics throughout the period. The lower classes of
Manama used them as venues to express values and symbols which
addressed issues of power, authority and class in the public arena. 1
Episodes of unrest in Manama also marked crucial junctures in the
process of nation and state building, a further testimony to the importance
of urban activism in reshaping Bahrain’s political and social orders. The
clashes between Persians and Arabs which engulfed the town in 1904 and
in 1923 were closely related to the commercial and political competition
engendered by growing British influence and, in the latter case, by the
establishment of municipal government. The riot staged by pearl divers in
1932 was triggered by the economic crisis but also by the reforms of the
pearl industry which throughout the 1920s activated nascent class solid-
arities among the workforce. Since the late 1930s, the organised demon-
strations and strikes which gradually transformed Manama into a forum of

1
The role played by popular activism, ritual expression and ideological contestation in
shaping public arenas in a colonial context is discussed in S. Freitag, Collective Action and
Community.
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