ABSTRACT
The rise of neoliberalism in economics faculties, including the Delhi School, led to a turning away from economic history, which came to be seen as neither relevant nor necessary for the contextualization of India's development problems. While economists, especially those of a more mainstream persuasion, abandoned economic history in the 1940s and 1950s, the growing influence of Marxism, most strikingly among historians, infused economic history with new life and energy. The injection of Marxism into history writing in India opened up whole new worlds of possibilities. The impact of Marxism and its contribution to a deeper engagement with economic life was felt across the long span of the Indian past. The influence of Marxism was felt elsewhere in the study of medieval India, perhaps most strikingly in studies of the Mughal Empire where the focus shifted from the personalities of the ruling emperors to material conditions.
