Biography
Born in Varanasi, India, Arvind Sharma earned a B.A. in History, Economics, and Sanskrit from Allahabad University in 1958. In 1962, Sharma joined the Indian Administrative Service, serving in Gujarat until 1968. In 1971 he received an M.A. from Syracuse University and in 1974 earned a Masters in Theology from Harvard University. In 1978 he obtained his Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Harvard University. In 1976 he was appointed to the position of Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Queensland and in 1980 he took a similar position at the University of Sydney.
In 1987, Sharma took the position of Associate Professor of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal. He is currently the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion there. Sharma was the first Infinity Foundation Visiting professor of Indic Studies at Harvard. He has held fellowships at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Center for the Study of World Religions, the Brookings Institute, the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life, and the Center for Business and Government. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Sharma currently writes two blogs entitled "Indological Provocations" and "The Comparative Study of Religion".
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