Hyderabad: In the years leading up to the Indian independence struggle, it was quite common for those who could to study in the United Kingdom (UK). India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and even the Dalit icon, dr. BR Ambedkar, studied there. However, freedom fighter Abid Hassan Saffrani from Hyderabad, who was strongly opposed to British rule, preferred Berlin as his educational destination. It would change his life forever.
Saffrani, a tough Gandhian, met Bose while studying in Berlin, and would later become the former’s only ally who traveled with him on a submarine trip from Germany to Japan during World War II (WW2). His journey is in fact one of the most remarkable stories from the days before India’s independence, given his close association with Bose and his participation in the freedom struggle against the British.
Last week he was also posthumously awarded the ‘Netaji Award 2021’ in Hyderabad. The award was presented to Abid Hasan Safrani’s family in Hyderabad on April 8 for his contributions to India’s freedom struggle against the British.
Who was Abid Hasan Safrani?
He was born on 11 April 1911 in Hyderabad as Amir Hasan and Fakhrul Hajia Begum. He is called Zain-ul-Abdin Hasan. Safrani completed his schooling at St George’s Grammar School in Hyderabad, which was then one of the city’s most prestigious educational institutions. He then joined Nizam College, but soon left to join
Mahatama Gandhi after appealing to take part in the freedom struggle.
Safrani also joined the Congress Volunteer Corps in Bombay, and later followed his brothers and joined Gandhiji’s Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. Eventually, he decided to study in Berlin, Germany, which would forge his future as a freedom fighter and close assistant to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose during World War II. Safrani joined the Indian National Army (INA), led by Bose, and would spend days in different countries before returning to India around independence.
INA days, prisoners of war
Contrary to the convention at the time, Safrani traveled to Berlin in 1935 to pursue engineering at his own request.
mother, who was also at the forefront of the freedom struggle. There he meets Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whose call to join the freedom struggle is immediately answered by Abid Hasan Safrani, who even left his course and joined Bose as his personal secretary and interpreter.
Evil gathered the captured Indian soldiers fighting for the British at Netaji, who used these liberated prisoners of war to set up the Free India Legion. The group was also another place where its members would discuss and envisage a free and just India. With World War II in full swing, the Axis Powers (Germany-Japan-Italy) were busy with the Allies (US-Russia-Britain) and Netaji decided to move the base to Japanese territory closer to India.
Safrani, who was willing to make his contribution to the independence of India, undertook the submarine voyage with Bose and was his only companion on a historic voyage from Kiel in Germany to Japanese territory in Malaysia. They began their journey in a German submarine and switched to a Japanese one off the coast of Madagascar, which was later recorded as the first submarine transfer on the high seas.
Upon reaching Singapore, Bose took over the Indian National Army (INA), formed by the Japanese intelligence unit on the same pattern as Netaji’s Free India Legion of Germany, with captured Indian prisoners of war. Safrani was constantly with the INA fighting from Burma to Imphal in India, and wrote down his experiences in an article he wrote entitled ‘Our Men in Imphal’.
However, the INA eventually began to lose and was eventually defeated when the Allies won the war. Towards the end of the show, Abid hasan was asked to return to Hanoi while accompanying Bose from Singapore to Tokyo. He was then captured and captured by the British. Many of the INA officers were indeed executed after the war in Delhi, but most were acquitted because there was a public outcry against these trials, because people regarded them as freedom fighters and not as war criminals.
Safrani was also released from prison in Singapore and returned to India as it approached independence. After India gained freedom, Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru enlisted him in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). He has been posted to several countries, including Egypt, China, Switzerland, Iraq, Syria, Senegal and Denmark.
Coin the slogan ‘Jai Hind’
An issue that arose in the INA was the need for a general greeting that was essential to maintaining the discipline of the army. And English people were out of the question, as troops felt betrayed by the British. It was then that Safrani was entrusted with the task of coming up with something new. Initially he suggested ‘Hello’, but this was completely rejected by Bose. This was his next proposal that would eventually be accepted.
Safrani’s next idea was “Jai Hindustan Ki”, which Bose found interesting and too long. It was therefore shortened to ‘Jai Hind’, which then became the official greeting of the Indian national army after Bose took it over. ‘Jai Hind’ after independence was also greeted by the Indian Army and also for the government employees. After retirement, Safrani settled on a farm in Shaikpet, Tolichowki. He died in 1984.
Source: The Siasat Daily