We fooled ourselves into believing that we did not need the humanities; and, even as the imaginations of our young people were paralysed, including those in the sciences – for they no less than artists need the past to enlarge their idea of human possibility – we did not build institutes of classical studies to rival our IITs and our IIMs. We let foreigners do the hard work of studying our past and humanities.

No, this isn’t from someone in the United States. This is from Aatish Taseer, writing in the Hindustan Times.

I read it here.