Dialogue of Civilizations The Reconciliation of the East and West as Envisaged by Mohammad Iqbal

The world has always suffered from strife,conflicts and violence arising due to differences of race, color, ethnicity, creed, religion and region. In today’s world, many statesmen and political analysts have attributed conflicts and strife to ‘Clash of Civilizations’ particularly between the Eastern and Western world. Therefore, the world today desperately needs to talk about ‘Dialogue of Civilizations’ rather than ‘Clash of Civilizations’ to preserve peace and amity. One of the greatest philosopher-poets and a visionary of the 20th century, Mohammad Iqbal, has attempted such dialogue through his works specially poetry. This paper discusses how his critique of the West as well as the East was aimed at reconciliation of the two, and not rejection leading to conflicts.