[3] He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in 1970 with a thesis titled The development of political organisation in the Allahabad locality, 1880–1925[4] under John Andrew Gallagher.
Bayly was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 2013.
[5] In 2007, he succeeded Sir John Baker as President of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.
He was co-editor of The New Cambridge History of India and sat on the editorial board of various academic journals.
[6] Upon being informed of the knighthood, he stated: "I regard this not only as a great personal honour but, as an historian of India, as recognition of the growing importance of the history of the non-western world.