Page 195 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

‘Disorder’, political sociability and the urban public sphere 175

(Free Youth) and Shabab al-Ummah (Islamic Youth) introduced ideas of

national rights inspired by the establishment of a legislative council in

Kuwait (Majlis al-Ummah al-Tashri‘iyyah) in that year. Their members,

who also included young Hawala from Muharraq, promoted a new type of

political literacy which targeted the grass roots directly. Graffiti and

anonymous notices started to appear on the walls of Manama. One of

their favourite targets was the Bahraini Court, the highe st judicial author-

ity in the country, which they considered the symbol of Bahrain’s flawed

legal system under Belgrave and the Al Khalifah. Leaflets circulated

inciting popular militancy against the government. They ordered the

‘noble Arab nation’ to go on strike and to boycott cinemas and modern

amenities in order to devote its energy to the struggle against the corrup-

tion of the government and the despotism of the advisor. 65 If 1938

became known in Kuwait as the ‘year of the Majlis’, in Bahrain it started

a new era of political contestation under the aegis of these youth organ-

isations. After a series of political meetings led to the arrest of a number of

activists, the clerks employed in the oil refinery joined forces with oil

workers and went on strike. The agitation was suppressed by the police,

and the Hawala leaders were exiled in what was a dress rehearsal for the

tragic events which would involve al-Ha’yah almost twenty years later. 66

Among the Baharna, the ‘political agitator’ was concerned with the

grievances of the Shi‘i lower classes. He addressed these grievances in a

traditional setting, often using his connections with the increasingly mil-

itant labour force of the markets, and displayed a vociferous populist

rhetoric and distaste for hierarchy and authority. In 1932 ‘Abd ‘Ali al-

‘Alawayt, a young trader from al-Mukharaqah district and a future

militant in al-Ha’yah, stormed into the majlis of Shaykh Hamad with a

crowd of petty shopkeepers and butchers. The thirty-strong group had
assembled to protest against the enforcement of the compulsory registra-
tion of the estates of minors with the government which had triggered
unrest throughout Bahrain. The Shi‘i delegation blatantly violated the
rigid protocol which guided deputations to the regent, who was subjected
to a long and vehement speech delivered by al-‘Alawayt on the subject of
65
Muhammad ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jasim and Sawsan ‘Ali al-Sha‘ir, al-Bahrayn: qissah al-sira‘

al-siyasi, 1904–1956 (Manama: [n.pub.], 2000), pp. 175–200. R/15/2/176 IOR: Political

Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bushehr, 12 November 1938; Belgrave to Political
Agent Bahrain, 22 November 1938; leaflets and letters by Shabab al-Ahrar, Shabab
al-Ummah and Shabab al-Watani; minutes by Political Agent Bahrain, 3 November
1938. On the Majlis in Kuwait see Crystal, Oil and Politics in the Gulf, pp. 47–55.
66
Khuri, Tribe and State in Bahrain, pp. 197–8; Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident
Bushehr, 12 November 1938, R/15/2/176 IOR; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1357’ in The
Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970, vol. II, pp. 29–30.