A composition for forming anti-reflective coating for use in a lithographic process in manufacture of a semiconductor device, comprising as a component a resin containing cyanuric acid or a derivative thereof, or a resin containing a structural unit derived from cyanuric acid or a derivative thereof. The structural unit is preferably represented by formula (1): ##STR00001## and can be contained in a main chain or a side chain, or both main chain and side chain of a resin. The anti-reflective coating for lithography obtained from the composition has a high reflection reducing effect and does not cause intermixing with a resist layer to give an excellent resist pattern. It has a higher selectivity in dry-etching compared with the resists.