There may be no graphical symbol more reviled today than the swastika. In 1921 Hitler adopted the hakenkreuz, or hooked cross, as the logo for the Nazi party and later as the official German flag.

It is late at night in Delhi, and hot. In New York, my class is about to start. We will begin reading a new poem today, a fifth-century court epic by the greatest of all Sanskrit poets, Kalidasa. I'm ...