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Category
Disciplines in Literature & Letters
Novelists, poets, philosophers, theologians, New Thought authors, historians and the students of language itself.
Era
9 figures
Rabindranath Tagore
1861 – 1941First non-European Nobel laureate; wrote two nations' anthems.
José Rizal
1861 – 1896Ophthalmologist whose novels ignited the Philippine revolution; executed at 35.
Mahatma Gandhi
1869 – 1948Turned nonviolent resistance into a working political technology.
Muhammad Iqbal
1877 – 1938Poet-philosopher who conceived the idea of Pakistan.
Lu Xun
1881 – 1936Founded modern Chinese literature and diagnosed a nation in vernacular prose.
S. Y. Agnon
1888 – 1970Rebuilt Hebrew as a modern literary language.
Ho Chi Minh
1890 – 1969Wrote Vietnam's declaration of independence quoting Jefferson.
B. R. Ambedkar
1891 – 1956Principal architect of India's constitution and Dalit emancipation.
Yasunari Kawabata
1899 – 1972First Japanese literature laureate; Snow Country and The Old Capital.