Page 396 - Bahrain Gov Annual Reports (III)_Neat

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SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT

The population of Bahrain can be roughly classified as being half rural and half urban. When
considering the development of the people of Bahrain it is necessary to maintain a clear distinction
between the townsfolk and the villagers as the latter are about a century behind the former in their
outlook and in their way of living, the reason for their backwardness is not bnly because they happen
to live in the villages but because they are a different people with a different mentality to the in­
habitants of the towns, there is a difference in their speech and in their physical appearance.

The Bahama.—The villagers are Shias, known among themselves and among the Arabs as
Bahama though in recent years some attempts have been made to apply to them the designation
of Shia Arabs ". They are the original inhabitants of the islands whose ancestors once owned
the date gardens in which many of them now work as the tenants of the Arab landlords. There
are however a few Arab villages such as Hedd, Rafaa, Zcllaq, Door and Jaw but the rest of the villages
are exclusively &hia. Until comparatively recent times the Bahama were subject to a stern feudal
system which the older men among them still remember with embittered feelings. Their past history,
the racial and religious differences between them and the Arabs and their sudden rise from the position
of hewers of wood and drawers of water ” to a state of equality with other communities has ag­
gravated in those of them who are coherent an acute inferiority complex which is advertised by in­
cessant aggressive complaints about their alleged grievances vis a vis the Arabs.

Politically the Bahama have been affected by two important changes during the last 20 or 25
years; the idea of feudal supremacy of individual members of the Ruling Family has disappeared,
the authority of the Shaikh is high among them not so much because he is the chief of the Ruling
Family but because he is the head of the State. Other members of the family are no longer regarded
as overlords but as landlords, individuals to whom no abnormal obligations are due.

The other change, which is more recent, is the change in the attitude of the Bahama towards
their religious leaders. In the past the Bahama have been described as fanatical and there are still
Arabs who would be afraid to spend a night in a Shia village ; they probably earned their reputation
by the frantic and bloodthirsty celebrations which take place during Muharram, though in fact it is
the Persian element which is most conspicuous in the Muharram processions which in recent years
instead of tending to diminish have definitely increased. One of the chief characteristics of the
village Bahama, which gave such political influence to their religious leaders, was their almost idol-
atrous reverence for the Shia Qadis. The feeling does not now exist, the villagers no longer crawl
on the ground to kiss the feet of the Qadi when he visits a village. Partly the change is due to the
Qadis themselves and partly because young men who have been to school or who have worked in
companies and have been in contact with people holding more modem views no longer regard the Qadis
in the way that their fathers did. Simultaneously with the decrease in the influence of religious
leaders there has developed a relaxation of religious rules such as fasting during Ramadhan, the
ban on alcoholic liquor and the obligation to make the Pilgrimage but the non-observance of Islamic
laws is far more evident in the towns than in the villages.

In the days of the old regime, before the rule of the late Shaikh, the Bahama had no say in
public matters. Those in immediate authority over them were the “ wazirs " who were themselves

ever anv ODDortunitv omirc ^ 6r°up of Manama Bahama who present themselves, when-
' “the rePresentat*ves of the Shia Bahama, comprising about half of the

owing to the LoI^tVof 7mpl0a^fnrt°baanbdIyth7hre ProsPero“s now “>an at any time in their history.

near schools send their children to them.

.