Page 193 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

‘Disorder’, political sociability and the urban public sphere 173

Regrettably, faced with al-Fitnah many youths became oblivious of their national
duty, abandoned their beliefs and views. Especially some of the intellectuals from
Muharraq who started to be drawn towards sectarian feeling, and appealed to
partisan loyalties by using terminology such as Muharraqi and Manami … I had
witnessed in Bombay how the English ignited sectarian strife between Hindus and
Muslims and I felt I had a major responsibility. If sectarian strife had continued [in
Bahrain], what would have been the result? Bloodshed! 60
After the riots, al-Bakir became one of the main promoters of al-Ha’yah
al-Tanfidhiyyah al-‘Uliya (The High Executive Committee), the populist
organisation based in Manama which by 1956 became the first political
association recognised by a Gulf government.

61
Urban and national politics as a ‘mass subject’, 1932–57
Between 1932 and 1957 Manama emerged as the principal arena of Arab
nationalism in Bahrain. In this period, three elements contributed to the
gradual consolidation of mass politics in what by the early 1950s had
become the city of Bahrain’s oil boom. The first was the propagation of
the political language of Arabism, which the supporters of Shaykh ‘Isa had
introduced in the 1920s, as a ‘subject’ of popular mobilisation. The new
rhetoric condemned loyalty to sect, patron and locality, particularly after
al-Fitnah, which marked the beginning of Bahrain’s second national
‘revival’ after the intercommunal violence of 1923. The second element
was the emergence of new urban leaders. Although appeals to traditional
solidarities continued to command the support of the grass roots, a group
of young Arab activists imbued with nationalist ideals gradually replaced
the merchant patrons of the pearl era. The demise of the municipal
government in 1951 sealed the transition between the old and new leader-
ship. Many of the new activists participated in the agitations which led to
the dissolution of the majlis, thus contributing to undermining the last
bastion of the urban order identified with the old merchant classes. The
third element was the creation of al-Ha’yah, a modern political organisa-
tion whose ethos was instrumental in reorganising popular militancy in
accordance with anti-British nationalist sentiment.

60
al-Bakir, Min al-Bahrayn, p. 49 (my translation).
61
The expression ‘mass subject’ is borrowed from Michael Warner’s discussion of the creation
of public subjectivity through print culture, ideology and publicity. M. Warner, ‘The Mass
Public and the Mass Subject’ in C. Calhoun (ed.), Habermas and the Public Sphere
(Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1999), pp. 377–401.