DURING one of my visits to Bahrain, I decided to see Labor Minister Abdulnabi Al-Sho’ala as he had been in the news. At the time, I used to edit Malayalam and Urdu dailies. Our correspondent, Ashok Kumar, who seemed to know everyone in the news, promptly fixed an appointment for me and I was all set to meet him.
Soon after entering his office and exchanging greetings I realized that we had something in common, in fact a strong bond that made us friends immediately. We were both graduates of St. Xavier’s, the famous Indian college, which still enjoys the status of a top-ranking institution and has been known for being the best college in Bombay University since the 19th century. It is still a distinguished college in arts and sciences and is more reputable than even the venerable St. Stephens College in Delhi.
Al-Sho’ala joined St. Xavier’s a few years after I had graduated and left for my country, Aden, the British crown colony in the southwestern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. Both of us knew the principal, Prof. Edward D’Cruz, well. He was Goan in origin and had rejuvenated the college after the retirement of principal Balaguer, a Spaniard with a background of English education. After having taken a degree from Rome, D’Cruz was educated in Oxford University.
Al-Sho’ala was close to D’Cruz who gave him a chance to study in college against heavy odds. He said that he had not planned to go to India but when his stepfather needed medical treatment, he went to India along with him. “I went to Xavier’s wearing a suit and carrying a brief case. There was an enormous queue of students seeking admission at the college. It was unusual for any student in the college or any other college to wear a suit and carry a briefcase.”
Although it was all right for college students in British Aden to wear a necktie, in India, it was not the done thing. So, I was often asked if it were my birthday and when I said it wasn’t, I was thought of hailing from a different planet.
That was a fact since I was from a different country and so was Al-Sho’ala. We both learned to shun the tie in college and wear normal clothes like everyone else. Al-Sho’ala endeared himself to D’Cruz who gave him admission almost immediately despite the competition and his being an Arab Muslim. It was not really true that Xavier’s was a Christian college for Catholics only since it had a large quota of Muslims and Hindus and some Jews. The criteria for admission were high marks in high school and good behavior. I like to believe that we were in this category.
D’Cruz told Al-Sho’ala that the queue for admissions was 300 meters long and that he was not quite the finest English-language speaker but Al-Sho’ala replied that he had come 3,000 km to join the college and hoped he would be accepted. D’Cruz was bemused but handed him an admission form anyway and that is how Al-Sho’ala was admitted. In my case it was different since I was on an Indian government scholarship and my English was deemed fine to both the principals, Balaguer and D’Cruz. Sadly, both have died in the interim.
Al-Sho’ala was asked if he had any known reference in India and he said he knew the principal himself, which is D’Cruz. Again the principal smiled and signed his papers.
During his college days, Al-Sho’ala attended a function in Delhi and went up to greet Indira Gandhi, the prime minister, and thanked her for the opportunity India was giving him and other Bahraini students to study in its colleges.
There again there was something in common between us since I had also met India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and much later interviewed Gandhi in Delhi for this newspaper. Al-Sho’ala and I exchanged notes on our meetings with these famous personages just like we discussed our college years.
Al-Sho’ala returned to Bahrain in l973, joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefly, and then ventured into business of his own working as a public relations adviser and publishing a cyclostyled news bulletin in English. But since there was a dearth of newspapers in English at the time, he went back to business, and ran for election, campaigning on a platform of change. Despite the odds facing him, he was elected three times.
When he finally left the chamber he took up a role in the Shoura (Consultative) Council, the advisory body to the Cabinet, which brought him close to the top government machinery. It afforded him an opportunity to prove his best and draw attention to his potential.
Bahrain then as now is a monarchy, albeit a liberal one, and so within three years he had proven himself to be worthy of royal trust and was appointed minister of labor and social affairs. He was at the zenith of his career and that was when I visited him.
“If there is one thing I want to tell today’s youngsters it is to believe that nothing is too great,” he said. He acknowledges the invaluable support of his wife, Rabab Al-Mahroos, in agreeing to marry him even though his career had not picked up. “I would never have been here without her,” he admits.
Asked about his vision for Bahrain in the present century, he predicted the country would become a “major player in the affairs of the region and would be in the forefront of development.” New technologies mean that time is running out for the foreign work force especially manual laborers. “The island’s growth will increasingly rely on our own people and while expatriates will continue to be part of the work force the emphasis will be on quality rather than quantity,” he continued. This is foreseeable not only in Bahrain but also in the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries where Indians form the largest segment of the expatriate community.

— luqman@srpc.com