The Marxist historians have contributed enormously to Indian historiography. In all field of Indian history, whether we divide it by periods or by topics, the Marxist historians have made significant contributions. In several areas, their works have changed the course of historiography.
The Marxist historians do not form a monolithic bloc. However, there have wide divergences of views among the Marxist historians. The history of the dynasties was replaced by the history of the common people. More emphasis was now given to the study of economy and society in preference to the political history.
The study of broad social and economic systems such as feudalism and colonialism were undertaken and the social, economic and political changes were considered not in the light of the actions of individual statesmen, but in terms of the working out of economy and conflicts between classes. At the level of methodology, Kosambi’s works introduced an interdisciplinary approach to history which encompassed literature, archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, numismatics and statistics.
Moreover, the Marxist historiography has; made interpretation and explanation more important than narration or description. Marxism is a dominant presence in the field of Indian historiography in the post independence period. A lot of historians i either come directly within its fold or have been influenced by it in certain degrees. It has also influenced most of the trends of Indian I historiography in some way or the other. It is, therefore, not possible to give a comprehensive account of all the trends in it and the historian’s associated with this stream of historiography.