On Friday, hundreds of Indian gay rights activists and their supporters celebrated the first anniversary of a landmark court ruling decriminalizing homosexuality and marking their gradual acceptance in the deeply conservative country.

Members of Mumbai's gay community danced, sang, laughed and hugged each other in the city's sprawling Azad Maidan park as speakers recalled the long years of struggle to get Indian courts to change the country's law.

On July 2 last year, the Delhi High Court struck down a law - Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code - that made sex between people of the same gender punishable by up to 10 years in prison. While actual criminal prosecutions were rare, the law was frequently used to harass people.

"I'm very excited. It's honestly independence day for us," said Arun Mirchandani, 28, who recently published his first book titled 'You Are Not Alone' which deals with being homosexual in India.

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