[2] Satish Chandra was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh (then the United Provinces) to Sir Sita Ram, who later become the first Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan,[3] and his wife, Basudevi.

He was Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi.

[7] Along with S. Gopal, Bipan Chandra, and Romila Thapar, he co-founded the Centre for Historical Studies at the School of Social Sciences in JNU.

[7] Among his various other appointments, he served in the council of the United Nations University, Tokyo between 1980 and 1986.

[11][7] He belonged to the group of historians, along with Romila Thapar, R. S. Sharma, Bipan Chandra and Arjun Dev, who are sometimes referred to as "left-leaning.