An Indonesian national, Pasha Hanifa graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Degree with Honours) in Islamic Studies at The University of Melbourne in Australia. He is currently reading an MPhil in Classical Indian Religion at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford.

His research interests include the development of modern Indonesian Hinduism as a socio-religious and political identity as he traces the influence of the Arya Samaj and Neo-Advaita figures in contemporary Balinese Shaivite thought. This development caused a reinterpretation of traditional Balinese Shaivite scripture, ritual, and theology as part of a reform movement to be a centralised and national monotheistic religion to gain legitimacy with the Indonesian government’s Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Beyond academia, he assists with the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies continuing education program and is passionate about travelling the world, studying Persian, reading Sufi poetry, learning of other religions as a path of spirituality and devotion, and being active in partaking in a variety of religious communities’ activities and rituals.