Photos: Artist Sunil Gupta remembers historian & activist Saleem Kidwai

Noted historian and queer rights activist Saleem Kidwai, who not too long ago turned 70, handed away Monday morning after struggling a coronary heart assault in Lucknow. Kidwai, born in 1951, is the creator of “Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History (2001)” which he co-authored with Ruth Vanita, a professor on the University of Montana. A replica of this ebook was given to the judges of the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court whereas it heard a clutch of petitions in opposition to Section 377, a colonial-era legislation that criminalised grownup consensual same-sex relationships. Kidwai taught Indian medieval historical past for almost 20 years on the University of Delhi’s Ramjas College and was related to the homosexual rights motion, serving to set up assist areas for the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LGBT) group within the National Capital.