Page 237 - Histories of City and State in the Persian Gulf_Neat

City and countryside in modern Bahrain 217

of the islands in 1957. Second, a chronic lack of funds impaired the revival
of agriculture which in the late 1930s started to be promoted by the
administration to compensate for the uncertain prospects of oil exploita-
tion. Investment failed to revive large-scale cultivation as it was channelled
towards experimental projects which sought to introduce new crops and
agricultural techniques. Third, after 1940 restrictions on the drilling of
artesian wells which were depleting Bahrain’sunderground water supplies
weakened further agricultural output. By 1951 gardens were no longer
profitable investments as dates ceased to be an essential item in the local
diet while the majority of vegetables started to be imported. 62
The decline of agriculture combined with the development of the oil
industry slowly changed the profile of peasant communities. In the early
1930s the inability of the government to fix fair rents and place them on a
monetary basis led to the further impoverishment of the rural population.
Agriculturalists took out leases which were higher than they could afford in
an attempt to obtain the best plots. Landlords complained that their margin
of profit was unacceptable and brought villagers to court to recover their
dues. Many were imprisoned as they had no properties to auction to repay
63
their debts. In 1934 landowners started to employ salaried labour, mainly
Shi‘i cultivators from al-Ahsa’. By the mid 1950s the majority of date groves
and gardens were tended by Omani immigrants as villagers opted for the
secure wages offered by the oil company and construction firms. 64
While Shi‘i villages ceased to be an integral part of the traditional spatial
and social economy of Manama, the decline of agriculture marked the
dissolution of the economic bonds between the peasantry and their land.
By 1959 only 5 per cent of the labour force of Jidd Hafs and Sitrah, two
hamlets which started to grow as satellites of Manama and of the oil
refinery, was employed in agriculture. 65 For many peasants turned oil
and service workers, however, modernisation did not mean physical dis-
location from their homes. Until the late 1950s, the rural workforce did

62
The Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970: ‘Annual Report for the Year 1357’,
vol. II, pp. 28–9; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1358’, vol. II, pp. 34–5; ‘Annual Report for
the Year 1359’, vol. II, p. 35; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1362’, vol. III, p. 37; ‘Annual
Report for the Year 1371’, vol. IV, p. 35; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1955’, vol. V, p. 41.
Rumaihi, Bahrain, pp. 53–4.
63
R/15/2/176 IOR: Political Agent Bahrain to Political Resident Bushehr, 7 November
1934, D.O.N. C/882; Belgrave to Political Resident Bushehr, 12 November 1934.
‘Annual Report for the Year 1349’ in The Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–
1970, vol. I, pp. 2–3.
64
The Bahrain Government Annual Reports, 1924–1970: ‘Annual Report for the Year 1353’,
vol. I, pp. 555–6; ‘Annual Report for the Year 1955’, vol. V, p. 41.
65
The Population of Bahrain. Trends and Prospects (Directorate of Statistics, State of Bahrain,
January 1979), pp. 84–5.