ABSTRACT
As a part of calibrating Western philosophers for India, Chapter 1 suggests both a new reading of Rousseau that has not been attempted in the West, and shows how he laid the foundation for the old age home. Both are important and made possible as he is calibrated with India. For instance, in suggesting a new reading and identifying the foundation for a new social institution in Rousseau, this chapter cautions that modern Indian society (that is, at the junction of both the pre-modern/tradition and modern) can and should critically reflect on the old age home. That is, whereas the old age home is an unintended consequence of modernity in the West, in India it can have the status of a reflected institution. That is, in focussing on the adulthood of an individual, the modern West did not reflect upon or take into serious consideration the post-adulthood non-productive phase of human existence. This new reading, along with alerting India, can also shed new light on the developments in the West that seem to have eluded them.
