India’s tradition of debate and open spirit of enquiry are critical and essential for its economic progress, asserted Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday in his address at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and convocation.

Instead of speaking on economy and banking, Rajan spoke of the need to foster an environment in which ideas can flourish. He argued that resorting to bans will chill all debate and excessive political correctness can stifle progress as much as excessive licensing.

"The first essential is to foster competition in the market place for ideas. This means encouraging challenge to all authority and tradition, even while acknowledging that the only way of dismissing any view is through empirical tests," said Rajan.

He argued that protection of the right to question and challenge and the right to behave differently, as long as it does not hurt others seriously, is essential. "Fortunately, India has always protected debate and the right to have different views," he said.

"What this rules out is anyone imposing a particular view or ideology because of their power. Instead, all ideas should be scrutinised critically, no matter whether they originate domestically or abroad, whether they have matured over thousands of years or a few minutes, whether they come from an untutored student or a world-famous professor," added the RBI Governor.

Rajan said actions that physically harm anyone or show verbal contempt for a particular group so that they damage the group’s participation in the marketplace for ideas, should certainly not be allowed.

 "Sexual harassment, whether physical or verbal, has no place in society. At the same time, groups should not be looking for slights any and everywhere, so that too much is seen as offensive; the theory of confirmation bias in psychology suggests that once one starts looking for insults, one can find them everywhere, even in the most innocuous statements," said Rajan.

He said there should be a very high bar for prohibiting an act simply because it offends someone but does not actually harm anyone otherwise. Any ban, or any vigilante acts to enforce it, may offend as much or more than the offence itself, he added.

The RBI governor also called for tolerance in the face of provocation saying that one should not be so insecure about one’s ideas that they cannot be subject to challenge.

 "Tolerance can take the offence out of debate, and indeed instill respect. If I go berserk every time a particular button is pressed, rebels are tempted to press the button, while mischief-makers indeed do so. But if I do not react predictably, and instead ask button pressers to explain their concerns, rebels are forced to do the hard work of marshalling arguments," he said.

"Tolerance and respect then lead to an equilibrium where they reinforce each other," said Rajan.