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 2003 from the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi under the supervision of Gurpreet Mahajan.
[9] 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.
"[11] He believes that media plays significant role in this shift, particularly from data, evidence, and empirical accuracy to symbolic power.
[19] 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.
[20] Gudavarthy has appeared in visual and print media including Al Jazeera, US News and TR TWorld as a political commentator on India specific issues.
[29][30] He was one of the signatories that urged democratic organizations and individuals to stand against the oppressive move by Indian government to curb the voices of dissent.
[39] His contrasting of farm protests with the anti-CAA movement and the argument that the latter failed to appeal to a majority of Indians since its concerns remained uniquely centred around Muslims, was criticized for putting the onus and blame for not receiving wider ‘moral acceptability’ on the on survivors of majoritarian violence in India.