Introduction : structural violence and transnational migration in the Gulf states -- Pearls, oil, and the British Empire : a short history of Bahrain -- Foreign labor in peril : the Indian transnational proletariat -- Strategic transnationalism : the Indian diasporic elite -- The public sphere : social clubs and voluntary associations in the Indian community -- Contested identities, contested positions : English-language newspapers and the public sphere -- The invigorated state : transnationalism, citizen, and state -- Conclusion : Bahrain at the vanguard of change in the Gulf.