Allama Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938), also known as the 'Poet of the East', earned a doctorate in philosophy from the Ludwig-Maximillian University at Munich, and wrote his most evocative poems in Urdu, a language that was not his mother tongue. He counted Jawaharlal Nehru as one of his fans, and earned Mahatma Gandhi's respect as well. His funeral was attended by 70,000 people, which included colonialists and freedom fighters, socialist atheists and...