(A) When identity is thus ‘defined by contrast’, divergence with the West becomes central.

(B) Indian religious literature such as the Bhagavad Gita or the Tantric texts, which are identified as differing from secular writings seen as ‘western’, elicits much greater interest in the West thando other Indian writings, including India’s long history of heterodoxy.

(C) There is a similar neglect of Indian writing on non-religious subjects, from mathematics,epistemology and natural science to economics and linguistics.

(D) Through selective emphasis that point up differences with the West, other civilizations can, in this way, be redefined in alien terms, which can be exotic and charming, or else bizarre and terrifying, or simply strange and engaging.

(E) The exception is the Kamasutra in which western readers have managed to cultivate an interest.