It surprises many readers to learn that Iqbal — so often boxed as a narrowly sectarian figure — wrote a poem simply titled 'Ram', in praise of the Hindu deity and hero Lord Ram. It sits in Bang-e-Dara, the collection of his earlier years, and it is unambiguous in its reverence.
In it, Iqbal calls India proud to have produced Ram, and honours him, in a now-famous phrase, as the Imam-e-Hind — the spiritual leader, the Imam, of India itself. For a Muslim poet to bestow that word on a Hindu figure is a deliberate, generous act of reverence across the line of religion.
The poem belongs with Naya Shawala and Tarana-e-Hindi as evidence of something the later, contested Iqbal can obscure: that the imaginative heart of this poet could hold a whole, plural civilisation in genuine affection. 'Iqbal for All' is not a marketing claim imposed on him. At his best, he wrote it himself.