Thread: "leave alone doing something"

For some reason, I came to believe that this kind of expression can be used in sentences like "I won't even look at it, leave alone taking it in my hands" or "I don't want to come near her, leave alone talking to her". I guess I picked it up from one of my English schoolbooks way back when. These books were written by Russians and contained all kinds of outdated info. Recently I decided to check if this expression is actually used in English these days. To my horror, after googling for phrases of this type, I discovered that they seem to be used almost exclusively by Indians (by Indians here I mean people who live in India, not the native Americans).

Does that mean that this usage is completely obsolete? If so, what can you say to express this idea?

American English version:

I won't look at it, let alone touch it!

I won't go near her, let alone talk to her!

Also common:

I won't look at it, much less touch it!

I won't go near her, much less talk to her!

These are all very common American usage.

Both are also standard in British English.

Thanks!

Actually, if it is used in Indian English, you can hardly call it obsolete, as there are actually MORE speakers of Indian English than British English . . . (at least by some counts -- either way, there are loads of people in India speaking English, many as their first language, and a fine English it is too).