The attacks turned vicious and personal in the weeks before Mr. Rajan announced in June that he would not continue for a second term, with a B.J.P. lawmaker declaring that Mr. Rajan was “mentally not fully Indian,” in part because he holds a United States green card, allowing him to work and live there. Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, later denounced the attacks, but only after Mr. Rajan said he was leaving the job.

With Mr. Modi preparing for contentious local elections, some observers have said the government did not want Mr. Rajan to stay because it needed a looser monetary policy to bolster growth. India has the fastest-growing large economy in the world, at an annual rate of 7.1 percent for the most recent quarter, but that is still far slower than the rate of a decade ago and not fast enough to create jobs for the more than one million people who enter the work force each month. Mr. Modi won election in 2014 promising economic growth and jobs.

Mr. Rajan, leaning back in his chair and laughing at times during the interview, disputed that claim.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that it’s because of tight policy that the government wanted to move on,” he said.

He cited the government’s move after he announced his departure to set a low inflation target of 4 percent for the next five years. He said his successor, Urjit Patel, a central bank deputy governor who takes over this week, played an important role in setting the country’s tough inflation targets.

Mr. Modi has said little in public about Mr. Rajan’s departure except to defend him as “someone who loves his country” and “will continue to serve it.” Mr. Modi’s spokesman declined in a telephone interview on Sunday to explain why Mr. Rajan was leaving, other than to say: “There is a tenure and the tenure has ended. Why should the prime minister of India even be brought into this discussion?”

Mr. Rajan said his tight monetary policy had helped bring India’s rate of inflation — currently about 6 percent — down to the upper end of the government’s target range. “I think we’ve done exactly what was needed,” he said. Mr. Rajan said the central bank should continue to prioritize low inflation.