Ajay Gudavarthy is a political theorist, analyst and columnist in India. He is associate professor in political science at Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Ajay Gudavarthy is the son of Prof G. Haragopal, an activist in the civil rights movement and former dean of University of Hyderabad.^{[citation needed]}

Gudavarthy completed his PhD in 2002 from the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi under the supervision of Gurpreet Mahajan. His thesis was titled as "Fragmentation and Solidarity: A Study of Caste, Class and Gender Movements in Andhra Pradesh," which was a study of the interface between the three political movements, in light of new theoretical frameworks, with special reference to Critical Theory and Post-Marxism.

Gudavarthy's first teaching assignment was at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Calcutta from 2001 to 2003. He then taught as assistant professor at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore from 2003 to 2006. He joined Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2006. In 2008, he was Charles Wallace Visiting Fellow, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. He was a visiting fellow, Goldsmith College, University of London in 2010 and Visiting Faculty at Centre for Human Rights, University of Hyderabad in 2011. He had been a visiting fellow at Centre for Citizenship, Civil society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen in 2012.

Gudavarthy coined the term secular sectarianism, in his book Secular Sectarianism: Limits of Subaltern Politics. He conceptualizes secular sectarianism as a social condition in which those groups that attained social mobility, attempts to actively prevent the mobility of other marginalised social groups below them in hierarchy. He identifies the sub-caste conflicts among Dalits, Tribals, Other Backward Classes (OBC's ) in India and remarks it as the axes of intra-subaltern social conflict. He also views certain Muslim groups as steadfast in maintaining their social conservatism and refusing the policies of affirmative actions in minority institutions, marking the intra-subaltern social conflict.

Gudavarthy's book India After Modi: Populism and the Right is considered the first theoretical study of right-wing populism in India from within the left-liberal intellectual tradition. In the special issue on Populism by academic journal Kairos: A Journal of Critical Symposium, his work was featured for Book Forum discussion, and scholars including Samir Gandesha, Anup Dhar, Deepanshu Mohan, Abhay Amal, Vikas Pathak and Prakash Kashwan engaged conceptually and critically with the book.

Gudavarthy had identified a convergence that is taking place in socio-political domain, including "the neo-liberal turn in the economy, a populist turn in democracy and a certain kind of enculturalisation mediatization in social and cultural realm." He believes that media plays significant role in this shift, particularly from data, evidence, and empirical accuracy to symbolic power. He also argued that Bharatiya Janata Party in 1990's and post-2016, though looks similar, but is vastly different in nature. He defined this disparity in terms of the BJP's acceptability. He said, "Vajpayee belonged to an era when the consent for hindutva politics was very limited, so he projected himself as the BJP’s Nehruvian face—as someone who was more accommodative—because he knew that popular consent was for the Congress style of politics."

He has more than 50 scholarly articles in Indian and International academic Journals. He wrote a Hindi book, Bharat mein Rajneetik Andolano ka Samkaleen Itihaas: Nagrik Samaj ke baad ki rajneeti, (SAGE Publications: 2018), to uncover major concepts in political studies for vernacular students.