Chris Bayly, historian of 19th century India, passes away
Wednesday, 22/04/2015
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LONDON: Christopher Alan Bayly, one of the foremost historians of nineteenth century India and a member of the influential Cambridge school of historiography, suffered a heart attack in Chicago and passed away on Monday aged 70.
The Centre of South Asian Studies at Cambridge, which he directed, announced his death on Tuesday, “It is with great sadness that we have learned of the passing of our inspirational former Director, Professor Chris Bayly. Our thoughts are with Susan and his family”.
Bayly’s body of work has been essential reading in History and related disciplines in Indian and other universities across the globe.
His expertise was Benares and north India during the nineteenth century, which colleagues said was his “natural home”.
Bayly was the Vivekananda Professor at the University of Chicago during 2014-15. Several Indians historians and students worked with Bayly over the years. Bayly’s field-defining books include ‘Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 17801870’, ‘Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870’, and ‘Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire’ as part of the New Cambridge History of India.
