Celebrating Irfan Habib

Prabhat Patnaik deserves our congratulations for bringing together eminent scholars to write on the ideas and theories of the staunch Marxist historian and public intellectual Irfan Habib whose writings have made major ­departures from traditional Indian historiography and have influenced the thinking of his colleagues, generations of ­students and social scientists at large. Grouped under such broad rubrics as history and historiography, medieval India, and political economy and theory, the articles in the volume are heterogeneous. The range and ­variety of their themes give us an idea of his wide academic canvas and his path-breaking ­research that has promoted scientific history writing and shaped our understanding of Indian society during the last five decades.

Marxist Historiography