Dr Sudarshan Iyengar is a Gandhian economist and a former Vice Chancellor (from 2005-2014) of Gujarat Vidyapith, in Ahmedabad, India, the university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920. Sudarshan calls himself a social volunteer by disposition. Sudarshan has also headed the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad (1999-2004), the Centre for Social Studies, Surat (2004-05), and served as a Distinguished Chair Professor of Gandhian Philosophy (2016-2018) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He is a Director of the Gandhi Research Foundation Jalgaon, and a trustee at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram.
Sudarshan researches in the areas of the commons and natural resource development and management, non-government institutions and Gandhian thought and practice. He has published around 70 papers and articles and eight books. His 2016 book In the Footsteps of Mahatma: Gandhi and Sanitation by the Publication Division, Government of India, has been translated into Gujarati and Tamil. Sudarshan now works with Action Research in Community Health and Development (ARCH) in Western India.