Manoranjan Mohanty is a teacher, researcher and writer. A Political Scientist, China Scholar and Peace and Human Rights activist he has many books and research papers on theoretical and empirical dimensions of social movements, human rights, development studies and global transformation. After retiring from University of Delhi he has been with the Council for Social Development (CSD) and is the Editor of the CSD Journal, Social Change, published by Sage.

He is also Chairperson, Development Research Institute, Bhubaneswar, Honorary Fellow, Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), Delhi and Fellow at Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies, UC, Santa Barbara. A Ph D. from University of California, Berkeley, he was, till 2004, Professor of Political Science and Director, Developing Countries Research Centre (DCRC) at the University of Delhi where he taught Comparative Politics and Chinese Politics since 1969. He has had visiting assignments in several universities and research institutes in India and abroad including UC, Berkeley, Institute of Far Eastern Studies, Moscow, Oxford University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, Institute of Asian Studies, Copenhagen, University of Lagos, UC, Santa Barbara and New School, New York. He has been on the editorial board of many social science and China studies journals in India and abroad.