Abid Hasan Safrani, IFS, born Zain-al-Abdin Hasan, was an officer of the

Indian National Army The Indian National Army (INA, sometimes Second INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a Empire of Japan, Japanese-allied and -supported armed force constituted in Southeast Asia during World War II and led by Indian Nationalism#An ...

(INA) and later, after 1947, an Indian

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

. He famously introduced the slogan '

Jai Hind Jai Hind (, ) is a salutation and slogan that means "Hail India", "Long live India", or literally "Victory orIndia" as originally coined by Zain-ul Abideen Hasan, also known as Abid Hasan Safrani, an officer in Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's In ...

', which translates to 'victory belongs to India' that is used for official and semi-official purposes including army salutes, moral upliftment and in pop culture. Born to an anti-colonialist family in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, Abid Hasan was brought up in India and later went to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

to train as an engineer. While he was a student in

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Abid Hasan met

Subhas Chandra Bose Subhas Chandra Bose (23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945) was an Indian independence movement, Indian nationalist whose defiance of British raj, British authority in India made him a hero among many Indians, but his wartime alliances with ...

and decided to join the

Indische Legion The Indian Legion (), officially the Free India Legion () or 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment (), was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the ''Waffen-SS'' from August 1944. Intended ...

. Hasan would later serve as Bose's personal secretary and interpreter while Bose was in Germany. Hasan also sailed with Bose in the German

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

U-180 German submarine ''U-180'' was a German Type IX submarine#Type IXD, Type IXD1 transport U-boat of Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' which served in World War II. Her keel was Keel laying, laid down on 25 February 1941 at the DeSchiMAG AG Weser yard ...

in 1943 on Bose's voyage to South East Asia. Over the course of the reformation of the INA and its campaigns in the south east Asian theatre, Hasan rose to be a

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

Azad Hind Fauj The Indian National Army (INA, sometimes Second INA; ''Azad Hind Fauj'' ; 'Free Indian Army') was a Japanese-allied and -supported armed force constituted in Southeast Asia during World War II and led by Indian anti-colonial nationalist Subh ...

. It was also during this that he adopted "''Safrani''", after the holy Hindu colour of

Saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...

, to his name as a mark of communal harmony. After repatriation to India at the end of the war, Abid Hasan was released following the end of the

INA trials The Indian National Army trials (also known as the INA trials and the Red Fort trials) was the British Indian trial by court-martial of a number of officers of the Indian National Army (INA) between November 1945 and May 1946, on various charges ...

in 1946 and joined the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

briefly. After partition, Hasan chose to settle in Hyderabad and joined the nascent

Indian Foreign Service The Indian Foreign Service (IFS) is a diplomatic service and a Central Civil Services, central civil service of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India under the Ministry of External Affairs (India), Ministry of External A ...

. Over a long diplomatic career, Hasan served as the Indian

Ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

to a number of countries including

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

before retiring in 1969 and settling back in Hyderabad. Abid Hasan Saffrani died in 1984. On suggestion of Abid Hasan, the INA adopted "

" as its slogan; The term "

" had been coined by Abid Hasan himself. In the 1940s, the INA leaders decided to devise a religion-agnostic greeting for its soldiers: Thakur Yashwant Singh suggested "Hindustan ki Jai", but Hasan felt this was too long and suggested "Jai Hind" as an alternative, which was unanimously accepted. The term emerged as a national slogan after India's independence. Netaji Bose's nephew Aurobindo Bose later married Safrani's niece. Her name is Suraiya Hasan Bose. She was the daughter of elder brother of Abid Hasan safrini by name Badrul Hasan, who worked with Gandhiji. Mr Abid Hasan died on April 9, 1984.

Scholarly activities

Hasan was also a scholar who spent long hours with his Persian and Urdu poetry. His

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

translation of ''

Jana Gana Mana "" is the national anthem of the Republic of India. It was originally composed as " Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata" in Bengali by polymath and activist Rabindranath Tagore on 11 December 1911. The first stanza of the song " Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata" ...

'' with the music from Ram Singh Thakuri, became ''

Shubh Sukh Chain Shubh Sukh Chain (, ) was the national anthem of the Provisional Government of Free India. The song was based on a Bengali poem Bharoto Bhagyo Bidhata by Rabindranath Tagore. When Subhash Chandra Bose shifted to Southeast Asia from Germany in ...

'', the anthem of the

Provisional Government of Free India The Provisional Government of Free India or, more simply, Azad Hind, was a short-lived Japanese-controlled provisional government in India. It was established in Japanese occupation of Singapore, Japanese occupied Singapore during World War II ...

. Abid Hasan Safrani died on 9 April 1984 in Hyderabad.

References

*. From

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hasan, Abid 1911 births 1984 deaths 20th-century Indian Muslims Ambassadors of India to Denmark Ambassadors of India to Egypt Ambassadors of India to the Holy See Indian National Army personnel Indian Muslims Subhas Chandra Bose

Scholarly activities

See also

References