Page 196 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

176 Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf

government corruption. Brandishing a popular petition, he was

applauded loudly by his supporters at intervals. 67 Young activists like al-

‘Alawayt also acquired a popular base by joining merchant notables and

religious leaders who after 1934 used their connections to find employ-

ment in the oil fields for impoverished villagers. 68

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, community leaders and mem-

bers of the old notability adapted to the new climate of mounting populist

militancy which was becoming the hallmark of the young nationalists. In

parallel with the efforts of the youth organisations, progressive individuals

initiated intersectarian cooperation and introduced a new official lan-

guage of popular representation and of rights for the ‘national’ labour

force. In a petition sent to Shaykh Hamad in November 1938 Sunni, Shi‘i

and Hawala merchants from Manama and Muharraq demanded the
formation of a labour committee and the appointment of Bahraini sub-

jects instead of ‘foreigners’ to the majlis al-baladiyyah, while requesting

the formation of an elected body of merchants to represent the urban
residents. 69
The making of a new public opinion
In the 1940s and 1950s, Arab nationalism gradually became the terrain of
both elite and popular contestation. As an ideology of political emancipa-
tion, nationalism nurtured Bahrain’s independence movement against
British control. In social terms, it reclaimed popular sovereignty from
the Al Khalifah family as the ‘natural’ right of newly born modern citizens.
Two crucial developments promoted consensus across the broad spec-
trum of localised allegiances which characterised the Arab residents of
Manama. The first was the role which national solidarities had increas-
ingly assumed in the propagation of ideas of political and social regener-
ation. The ‘Arabisation’ of Manama was proposed as an antidote to the
‘Indianisation’ of Bahrain, that is, the imperial ideology which had placed
the islands under the control of the Government of India in 1919. The
second was the consolidation of new notions of citizenship. Following the
67
‘Annual Report for the Year 1350’ in The Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970,
vol. I, pp. 278–81; Belgrave Diaries, 9 and 12 February 1932, AWDU.
68
Confidential note by Belgrave, January 1935 and Belgrave to Political Agent Bahrain, 28
January 1935, R/15/2/176 IOR.
69
Memorandum dated 19 Ramadan 1357/12 November 1938 to Shaykh Hamad ibn ‘Ali Al
Khalifah, petition from the people of al-Hidd to Shaykh Hamad ibn ‘Ali Al Khalifah, 24
Ramadan 1357/17 November 1938 in Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident,
19 November 1938, R/15/1/343 IOR; Belgrave to Political Agent Bahrain, 27 Dhu al-
Qa‘dah 1357/18 January 1939, R/15/1/344 IOR.