Born Hajji Muhammad Shaikh, he was born into a family descended from
Kashmiri Pandit converts to
Islam in the city of
Gujrat located in the north of
Punjab. He was born on the day of the
Haj, or pilgrimage, in 1928, which prompted his parents to attach 'Hajji' to his first name, but he was also born with
aposthia (in which boys are born without
foreskin), which was seen as an even greater omen for a bright future; thus his name then became Muhammad Anwar Shaikh, with Anwar meaning radiant in the Arabic language. In his youth, he was a devout
Sunni along with his family. During the violent days of the
Partition of India, he became involved with
Muslim nationalist groups and participated in violent attacks against non-Muslims. On one occasion he was involved in the killing of a Sikh father and his son. On another occasion, he bludgeoned another Sikh man he encountered on a Darabi road with a long knife. Memories of these crimes were said to have haunted him ever since. As he reached the age of 25, Shikha left Islam and expressed his perspectives through theological writings. He emigrated to the United Kingdom, married a Welsh woman, and became a successful businessman dealing in property development. At around this time, Shikha also converted to the
Hindu religion practised by his ancestors. He subsequently adopted the name Anirudh Gyan Shikha. The importance of Shikha's work was recognized by
Tariq Ali, who devoted a chapter of his book
The Clash of Fundamentalisms to his views and the reaction they provoked. Shikha was living in
Cardiff,
Wales, when a
fatwa was issued against him from his homeland
Pakistan in 1995, where at least fourteen fundamentalist clerics issued
death sentences against him for apostasy. == Works ==