ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 engages with the relevance of studying attitudes towards the “West” for international politics and the discipline of international relations. Attitudes towards the “West” outside and within the “West” influence political decision-makers’ perceptions and performances to often unintended ends. Within the chapter the problematic legacy of binary thinking regarding “Western” and “Non-Western” imagined macro-groups is addressed, and psychological reasons for their continuity are presented. Furthermore the historical and contemporary role of attitudes towards the “West” in India and as part of identitarian discourses in India is discussed. The chapter ends with a presentation of the special identitarian situation in Tamil Nadu with its strong anti-traditionalist Dravidian heritage.
