Abid Hasan Safrani, born Zain-al-Abdin Hasan, was an officer of the Indian National Army and later, after 1947, an Indian diplomat. Born to an anti-colonialist family in Hyderbad, Abid Hasan was brought-up in India and later went to Germany to train as an Engineer. It was while he was a student in Germany during World War II that Abid Hasan met Subhas Chandra Bose and decided to join the Indische Legion. 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-180 in 1943 in 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 in the Azad Hind Fauj. It was also during this that he adopted "Safrani",