Queer rights activist Saleem Kidwai dead
LUCKNOW: Noted historian and queer rights activist Saleem Kidwai passed away Monday morning in his Lucknow residence. The 70-year-old is survived by his sister.
Kidwai, born in 1951, is the author of Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History (2001) which he co-authored with Ruth Vanita, a professor at the University of Montana.
A copy of this book was given to the judges of the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court while it heard a clutch of petitions against Section 377, a colonial-era law that criminalised adult consensual same-sex relationships.
The law was read down in 2018 after a historic legal battle, which spanned over two decades in the Delhi high court, and later with different benches of the apex court.
Kidwai taught Indian medieval history for nearly 20 years at the University of Delhi and was associated with the gay rights movement helping establish
support spaces for the Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transgender (LGBT) community in the national Capital.
He was also a scholar of Urdu literature and translated Malika Pukhraj’s autobiography into English. Most recently, he translated Qurratulain Hyder’s 1952 book, Safina-e-gham-e-dil, into English titled Ship of Sorrows.
People from across the country took to Twitter to pour tributes to the historian-writer. Many pointed that his book ‘raised’ an entire generation of queer people in India, creating a sense of belongingness.