Raghuram Rajan Speaks Up For The Need Of Tolerance In An Incredible Speech At IIT Delhi

In what is sure to be one of the most memorable convocation addresses in a long time, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan spoke up for tolerance, debate and encouraged students to "challenge all authority and tradition" at the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi's 46th convocation on Saturday.

He told students to "fight" to protect "the tradition of debate in an environment of respect and tolerance" and that, without this, there was no way to "keep the idea factory open."

Rajan, in his brief address, argued that while India could "grow for a long time" simply by "catching up with the methods of the industrialized countries", what it really needed to do was to find ways to get to the "production possibility frontier" as many of the software companies had done.

"New ideas, new methods of production, better logistics - these are what will lead to sustained economic growth...[and] economic growth through news ideas and production methods is what our professors and alums contribute to the nation," he said. "What does an educational institution or nation need to do to keep the idea factory open? The first essential is to foster competition in the market place for ideas. This means encouraging challenging to all authority and tradition even while acknowledging that the only way of dismissing any view is through empirical tests," he said.

"What does an educational institution or nation need to do to keep the idea factory open? The first essential is to foster competition in the market place for ideas. This means encouraging challenging to all authority and tradition even while acknowledging that the only way of dismissing any view is through empirical tests," he said.

"What this rules out is anyone imposing a particular view or ideology simply because of their power. Instead all ideas should be scrutinized critically no matter whether they originate domestically or abroad, whether they matured over 1000s of years or a few minutes, whether they come from an untutored student or a world-famous professor."

"Nothing should be excluded but everything should be subject to debate and constant testing. No one should be allowed to offer unquestioned pronouncements including myself here. Without this competition for ideas, we have stagnation," he said.

"This leads to our second essential - protection. Not of specific ideas and tradition but the right to question and challenge the right to behave differently so long it doesn't hurt others seriously. In this protection lies societal self-interest for it is by encouraging the challenge of innovative rebels that society develops."

"Fortunately, India has always protected debate and the right to have different views. Some have even embedded these views in permanent structures. Raja Raja Chola I built the Brihadeeswarar Shaivite temple...also incorporated sculptures of Vishnu and of the meditating Buddha thus admitting to alternative view-points. When Shahenshah Jalaluddin Mohammand Akbar invited scholars of all manner of persuasion to debate the eternal verities in court, he was only following the older traditions of our Hindu and Buddhist kings who encouraged and protected our spirit of enquiry."

"What then of brute sentiment?" he continued. "Should ideas or behaviour that hurt a particular intellectual position or group not be banned? Possibly. But a quick resort to bans will chill all debate as anyone and everyone will be anguished by [what] they disliked. It is far better to improve the environment for ideas through tolerance and mutual respect. Actions that physically harm anyone or show vocal contempt for a particular group so that they damage the group's participation in the market for ideas should certainly not be allowed. For example, sexual harassment, whether physical or verbal has absolutely no place in society. At the same time, groups should not be looking for slights any and everywhere. There is too much that's seen as offensive. The theory of confirmation bias in psychology tells us, once one starts looking for insults, one can find them everywhere, even in the most innocuous statements. If what you do offends me but doesn't harm me otherwise, there should be a very high bar for prohibiting your act. After all, any ban, and certainly any vigilante act to enforce it, offend you as much or more than the offence to me."

Tolerance means not being so insecure about one's ideas that one cannot subject them to challenge. It implies a degree of detachment that is absolutely necessary for mature debate. finally, respect requires that in the rare case when an idea is tightly associated with a group's core personality, we are extra careful about challenging it.

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Tolerance can take the offence about debate and instead instill the respect I've been talking about. 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 don't react predictably but instead ask the button-pressers to explain their concerns, rebels are force to do the hard work of marshalling arguments... So rebels do not press the button frivolously while thuggish mischief-makers who are found in every group are left without an easy trigger. Tolerance and respect lead to a good equilibrium where they reinforce each other. As Mahatma Gandhi said, the golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we should always see truth in fragments and from different points of view."

He concluded with these inspiring lines, "IITians like you will lead India's race for ideas. The India that you will graduate into is much more capable of using your technological capabilities and prowess than the India we graduated into. I wish you unlimited ambition and forecast great success for those of you who continue thinking and challenging. But as you go out in the world, remember our tradition of debate in an environment of respect and tolerance. By upholding it, by fighting for it, you will be repaying your teachers and this great institution, and your parents who worked so hard to send you here. And you'll be doing your country, our country, a great patriotic service."