April 20: Christopher Alan Bayly, a distinguished historian who specialised in post-18th-century Indian history and British imperial history, has died, the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge announced on Monday. He was 70.

The works of Bayly, a former director of the South Asian Studies centre, included The Local Roots of Indian Politics, Allahabad 1880-1920; Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1780-1870; and Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire.

Bayly, whose books have been used as recommended reading by generations of history students in the country, was also co-editor of The New Cambridge History of India.

At the time of his death, Bayly was Vere Harmsworth Professor Emeritus, University of Cambridge, Professor of History, Queen Mary University of London and Vivekananda Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago.

In April last year, he delivered the inaugural Indian Ministry of Culture Swami Vivekananda Visiting Professor Lecture: "Making Hinduism a 'World Religion': Before and After Swami Vivekananda".