Dr. A J M Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, Professor and Founder Chair, Dept. of Television, Film and Photography, University of Dhaka

The newly elected Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, a popular sports star turned politician, in his inaugural speech exhorted for peace in South Asia. Can he be a harbinger of peace? Peace and stability in South Asia will hinge on the interplays of three crucial issues such as the partition baggage, rising religious fanaticism, and geopolitical power play.
The partition of British India into two countries—India and Pakistan—holds the key to understand the contemporary politics and tension in South Asia. It left many unresolved issues which now acts as bones of contention between the two large South Asian neighbors. Kashmir which is apportioned between Pakistan and India is 8More on Imran, Pakistan,
(From Page 1) the epicenter of military conflicts and tension in the region. Pakistan claims that, in line with the partition policy, Kashmir as a Muslim dominated state should have been part of Pakistan while India claims that Kashmir should be part of India because the Hindu king of Kashmir officially made it a part of India during partition. Britain left India without settling this Kashmir issue. Since 1947, India and Pakistan fought several battles over Kashmir. The enmity created between these two countries over Kashmir initiated an arms race in the region. They both made nuclear bombs and commit millions of dollars for arms and ammunition every year, leaving millions of their citizens starving.
India and Pakistan also played as proxies of the cold war superpowers in South Asia. India belonged to the Soviet camp while Pakistan became a US and China ally. After the demise of the Soviet Union, the geopolitical scenario in South Asia took a new turn. Now South Asia has become a theater of power play between the US and China. Pakistan remained an ally of China while India moved closer to the US.
The independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh with the help of India in 1971 was a great defeat for Pakistan. Bangladesh as an emerging economy claims a stake in South Asian geopolitics. Both India and Pakistan closely watch Bangladesh and try to pull it toward them. Bangladesh has solved many of its outstanding problems with India but could not make any headway in solving the issues with Pakistan.
Rising religious fanaticism in all these countries poses a severe threat to public peace. Hindu-Muslim riots, orchestrated by colonial politics in the 1930s and 1940s, created a deep-rooted hatred between the Muslims and Hindus, the two major communities in the region. The creation of the state of Pakistan for the Muslims legitimized communalism. In recent years, religion has reemerged as an overriding factor in the domestic politics of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. For the last two decades, Pakistan went through waves of Talibanization, a radical brand of Islamist politics. The Taliban who preach a fanatic brand of Islam hold influence to destabilize the government in Pakistan. India, after being ruled by secular forces for many decades, has been undergoing a severe cultural transformation under the tutelage of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party which subscribes to a fanatic Hindu ideology called Hindutva. The BJP and its affiliated political and cultural groups are hell-bent to turn India into a Hindu state. After the takeover of Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister of India, Hindu vigilante groups banned beef sale at many places and maimed and killed several people for buying and selling beef. Given the Talibanization in Pakistan and growing Hinduization in India, Muslim fanatics in Bangladesh feel encouraged to challenge the secular fabric of Bangladeshi society.
Imran Khan won the last general election to become prime minister with the support of the urban middle class by declaring a war against corruption. His critics argue that to come this far Imran Khan has Talibanized himself and built rapport with the Pakistan Army which in turn set the stage for his victory through a managed and rigged election.
If he puts the money where his mouth is for peace and stability in South Asia, on the home front, he needs to navigate through waters dwelt in by the Taliban, who want to export their brand of Islam to other South Asian countries, and the trigger-happy military which is more than willing to respond to India through military means. He needs to reach out to India for solving the outstanding issues through dialogue and has to be vindicated by India where Hindutva thrives pursuing a virtual Jihad against Pakistan.
Friendship with Bangladesh will depend on settling the outstanding issues and offering an apology to Bangladeshi people for Pakistani atrocities in 1971.
What kind of Prime Minister Imran Khan will make will unfold gradually.
He can choose to be a man of history by acting upon his words in spite of risks to lose his position or he may continue as a poodle of the Taliban and the military. I am afraid his support base will steadily pull him toward the latter.