Comparative Struggles for Self-Determination in the Arabian Gulf: Challenging British Hegemony

Abstract The Arabian Gulf has a chequered history of subjugation and alliances of interest with the British, chiefly as a means of averting Ottoman and other external political control. However, there is evidence that Gulf people had always desired independence from British rule and domination. This aspiration was manifested in the adoption of Arab nationalism as an ideological foundation, both in opposition to the British and in pursuit of a pan-Arab union. Attempts for self-determination found their expression in the formation of distinct groups, associations and clubs whose key concern was the granting of constitutional civil liberties. These groups were directly predicated on Arab nationalism and flourished for roughly a decade from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. Political activism exhibited in the Arabian Gulf during this period evinces a high degree of awareness of regional as well as global politics. It shows that Arabs in the Gulf were neither docile adherents to British rule nor happily subservient to the dictates of Westminster. The article’s analysis, while drawing on all Gulf Arab states, places particular emphasis on social movements in Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, where such movements were considerably more active than in neighbouring countries.