Published by Orient BlackSwan, 2023, 148 pages.

“Abid Hasan Safrani…was a quiet revolutionary who kept himself out of the limelight even while being present at every vital scene and moment of the final phase of our freedom struggle…”
—Sugata Bose, Foreword

First of all, full disclosure: Ismat Mehdi is my aunt. So this book is personal to me. I remember Abid Hasan Safrani, whom we all called Manna, but it seems that I actually knew very little about him. He was a key figure in the movement for India’s independence and coined the slogan Jai Hind, a slogan that is still used.

Safrani was born in Hyderabad, India, in 1911 during the British Raj. His name was Abid Hasan, and he later took on the name Safrani, after saffron, which was the colour of sacrifice in India.

Hyderabad was, at the time, a city state in India, ruled by Nizam Osman Ali Khan. He was a driving force for women’s education and emancipation. Hyderabad produced several remarkable women, women who were pioneers in social work, well-informed and not afraid to speak their minds.

Safrani’s mother, Fakhrul Hajia Begum, was one of these women. She was a polyglot, spoke several languages, had a strong role in bringing up her children, and no one, not even her husband or the British Resident, could tell her what she could or could not do. She decided that her children would not study in Britain because it was the colonizing country. Instead, she sent them to study in Germany.

The movement for independence in India was growing stronger. It was led by two men, both with the same goal but with very different ways of achieving it: Mahatma Gandhi, who believed in non-violence and civil disobedience, and Subhas Chandra Bose, known as Netaji, who did not think that peaceful means alone could suffice.

When Safrani was in Germany studying engineering, he met Bose, a meeting that was to have an enormous impact on his life. Bose, although suffering from ill-health, was travelling around Europe, trying to persuade leaders to help India win independence from the British. Safrani gave up his studies and joined Bose.

Bose was determined to win Indian independence by whatever means necessary. He met with the Germans, who suggested he would have a better chance of success if he went through Asia. So the Germans arranged for him to go by submarine to Japan. The only person accompanying Bose was Safrani.

Bose not only got support from the Japanese but also raised money from the Indian diaspora in southeast Asia, money he used to equip the Indian National Army (INA) or Azad Hind Fauj, an army whose only goal was to free India. In his first public address after taking on the leadership of the army, Bose said, “When we stand, the Azad Hind Fauj has to be like a wall of granite; when we march, the Azad Hind Fauj has to be like a steam roller”.

This described exactly what the army became: it took on the British in Burma (now Myanmar). When Bose took over, there were 1,200 recruits: under him, the number rose to over 50,000. One of the brigades consisted only of women, The Rani Jhansi Brigade, which was under Captain Lakshmi Swaminathan.[1]

The army developed a reputation for not giving up, and continuing to fight even when the odds were against them. Safrani describes of the battle in Burma: “Chased by the enemy, open to attacks from the air and menaced by the guerrillas, even the medical aid we had consisted of our lone doctor with the few medicines he could carry on his back. … Yet we struggled on all the while. If we so wanted, we could have surrendered. That option was open to us and it would have been an honourable surrender.” But they did not and fought on to the end.

India won independence from the British in 1947, largely due to the unrelenting resolve of both Gandhi and Bose. Unfortunately, Bose died in a plane crash in August 1945 and did not live to see the realization of his dream.

Safrani went on to join the diplomatic service in newly independent India. He spoke several languages, and was very knowledgeable about art and history. His postings included Egypt, China, Switzerland, Iraq, Syria, Senegal and Denmark.

He retired to a farm near Hyderabad, where he lived with his dogs. His niece Suraiya joined him there and started a weavers’ unit.[2] That is the time I came to know him and remember visiting his farm.

This book is a tribute to Safrani, through the eyes of those who knew him well and his own notes and papers. The INA campaign in Burma is quoted from his book, and is a fascinating first-hand account. There are chapters about his diplomatic postings by his nieces and nephews who accompanied him, including the authors of this book.

The portrait of Safrani that emerges is of a dedicated, uncompromising, intelligent and self-effacing man. And someone whom I wish I had known better.

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[1] Lakshmi and her husband Prem Sahgal—who was a Japanese prisoner of war and later a commander in the INA—were family friends.

[2] See my review of the book about Suraiya Hasan Bose.