This is a translation version of the original video documentary which was than transcribed and translated from Bengali to English. A book with the title of History of Bangladeshis in Greater Manchester has been published and it will be distributed to the libraries, schools and universities. The interview took place on 26 September 2011, so information about his personal family information may have been changed.
8.45 Alhaj Gulam Mustafa Chowdhury MBE
8.45.1 Life in Bangladesh: Alhaj Gulam Mustafa Choudhury is a prominent community leader living in Manchester. He was born in 1946 in the village of Bodordi, Nabigonj, Habigonj. His father’s name is late Alhaj Samsul Alam Choudhury and his mother’s name is late Azizun Nessa Choudhury. He has three brothers and one sister; he is the third amongst all his siblings.
He completed his primary education at ‘Bodordi Primary School’. He then moved to “Nabigonj JK High School”, he studied there up to class eight and then he moved to “Habigonj High School”, and there he studied class nine and ten. He then moved to “Moulvibazar Government High School” and he applied for his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) in 1963.
In the past there was better education. In 1963 it was the first time a SSC exam had been taken after eighteen months, this was due to the adjustment of the examination times in December. The curriculum was more realistic and Bangla, English and Maths were the compulsory subjects in the curriculum but later on the English subject became an optional subject.
He said, the standard of education was very good and people who educated in 1960’s had completed their SSC’s, which is equivalent to a degree. Without receiving the results for the SSC exam, he migrated to the UK on 27th November 1963.
His father was involved with agriculture farms and some other businesses. With the income from the businesses, his father was able to maintain his family without any difficulties.
8.45.2 Journey to the UK & Immigration:
We asked him how he migrated to the UK. In his reply, he said “my eldest brother “Alhaj Gulam Rabbani Choudhury” arranged the labour voucher and his grandfather paid all the expenses for their journey to the UK. He did not have any objective prior to coming to Britain, as his eldest brother came with him, so he was relied upon him”. He had held his brother’s hand and came to Britain. At that time, he was only 18 years old.
He and his eldest brother arrived at the London Heathrow Airport and took a taxi and went to Good Place in London West. There was a relative from his brother’s in-law’s family who were living in west London. There were 14 bedrooms, some people used to live there, in the morning some people would sleep and some used to sleep at night. He and his brother stayed there only few nights.
8.45.3 Life in the UK:
When first arrived in the UK he has seen the snow and white ladies wearing skirts. The weather was very cold; people used coal to warm up the room. The snow and ice was common weather everywhere.
After that his brother’s uncle-in-law known as “Gulam Mustafa Raja Miah”, came from Southend-on-Sea and took them with him. His brother’s uncle-in-law took him to Southend-on-Sea and arranged admission for him to learn English. He studied at the college for a year on a part time basis. He learnt Basic English for communicating with others on a day to day basis.
During the period of his employment he met the renounced community leaders, Tosodduk Ahmed OBE, Gous Khan, Abdul Mannan Sanu Miah and Minhaj Uddin. He became closer with these people.
In 1965, there was a war between India and Pakistan. The community leaders had taken initiative to raise funds for Pakistan. At that time, Tosodduk Ahmed formed a Pakistan Society (Committee). Tosodduk Ahmed became the chairman and he became the Treasurer of this Society. He said, “Since then he became actively involved with community work and the politics”. He also said he is using his past experience and working with many charity organisations to raise funds for them.
8.45.4 Employment:
While he was studding in London, he started his working life from there. He worked as a kitchen porter in a local restaurant, then he worked as a trainee waiter and then promoted to the manager. He was employed until 1973, and then hr started a restaurant business in Manchester. When he worked as a kitchen porter, his weekly wages were £4.50. He worked in the Elahabad Restaurant, Tandoor Mahal Restaurant and Bombay Restaurant.
He started his first partnership business in November 1973, still now he is involved with this business. During this time the name of the business had been changed many times. The first name was the Momotaz Restaurant, then Curry Queen Restaurant and finally Showdagor Restaurant. He did not encourage his sons to get involved with the curry business.
In 1973, he started a Restaurant business with Abdul Matin and Anis Ullah. The business is situated in Gatley, Manchester. They paid £18,000.00 and bought the building. In 1994, he retired from the business due to health problems. Both of his partners have passed away and their children had taken over the management of this restaurant.
He is one of 10, who were able to build a hotel in Dhaka, called “Osmani Hotel International”. There was a good background story behind this development. He organised his friends to form a co-operative group and decided to save £10.00 every week and they built the eight stories Hotel building.
In 1982, the retired army General MAG Osmani also known as Bongobir Osmani came to visit the UK. On one occasion, they met with him and discussed their plan. The retired army general was impressed to hear that story and agreed to assist them in purchasing land in Dhaka. They provided the necessary fund to him.
In 1984, the retired general came to the UK again with the land registry deed and handed it over to them. In that visit, he came for medical treatment and apparently he died in the London Hospital in 1985.
In 1985, his partner Abdul Matin passed away and he became the managing director of this group. He took the initiative to make further progress to complete the project; therefore, he had to go to Bangladesh to get the possession of this land, as the land was occupied illegally by other people. After a long battle with the group of people, he was able to take the possession of this land.
In 1987, the building construction had begun and it was completed in 1990. On 25th March 1990, the opening ceremony of Osmani Hotel took place. The vice president of the Bangladesh Barrister Moudud Ahmed was the chief guest to conduct the ceremony. He also said the president was supposed to attend this ceremony but due to his very busy schedule, he had to send the vice president instead. He also said the foundation was laid down by the Prime Minister Mizanur Rahman Choudhury in 1987.
He said “initially we had plans to name the Hotel as Probashi Hotel but due the involvement of Retired Army General MAG Osmani and his death before the opening of Hotel, they had changed the name from Probashi to Osmani Hotel International.
He was able to unite 50 people to establish a cash and carry in Rusholme, Manchester. The business was known as the Bangladesh Cash and Carry. After running the business for about 5 years he had a second heart attack and then he decided to sell the cash and carry.
In 2004, he had a heart bypass surgery and since then he has retired from the business activities.
In 1973-2011, 38 years which is a long time, he is successfully running this business. This is the success story in his life. He strongly believes that he had a long lasting partnership in the Bangladeshi Community.
8.45.5 Social & Family:
In 1971, 23rd March he had gotten married to Syeda Raushanara Choudhury but the marriage function did not take place due to the political tension at that time. He had to go to Dhaka on same day of engagement after receiving a telegram. In 1971, 25th March the war had begun and he was advised to leave Dhaka and go to his home town in Habigonj.
After that he left Dhaka and it taken a month to go to his home town. After arriving at his home, he decided to bring his wife. He brought his wife, without having a marriage ceremony.
In 1974, he went to Bangladesh and he stayed there for about six years. In 1980, he returned to the UK and re-engaged himself with the business and become involved with the community work.
In 1967 and 1969, Dr. Amin Uddin came from Sylhet TB Hospital for collecting donations and he assisted him personally to raise funds for this hospital.
In 1980, he was engaged with the Shahjalal Mosque in Manchester. In 1982, he became a joint secretary of this mosques’ committee. Thereafter, he became the General Secretary, vice chairman and chairman. In 1998 and 2000, twice he was elected chairman of the mosque committee.
During his chairmanship period, he carried out the major development work (reconstruction) for the Mosque building. About 800,000.00 had been spent on the reconstruction work. There was plenty of work that needed to be done; the current committee is continuously carrying out this development work such as an improvement of the hall room.
In 1985, the Greater Manchester Bangladesh Association was formed; he became a founding member and Treasurer of this Association. There were few other people also involved; such as Abdul Matin, MM Bakth, Kabir Ahmed, Gulam Nurany (Humayun) Choudhury and other community leaders he added.
In 1985, he had to go through an ulcer operation. At that time, he realised, for a few hours he was lying in a bed as a dead man, if the operation was not successful then his children would become orphans, then what would happened to them. Since then he decided to do something for the orphans.
As soon as he returned from the hospital, he discussed this matter with his wife, brother GR Choudhury & GK Choudhury and other close family members and convinced them to support his will. He then went to Bangladesh to discuss this issue with his six uncles, who were the joint owners of the lands which were inherited from his grand grandfather (fourth generation) Daim Uddin. His entire uncle’s supported his good intention and registered the land for the orphan’s project known as “Daim Uddin Ethimkhana & Hafizia Madrasha” in Badordi, Nabigonj.
He said altogether, he got 300 decimals of lands for the Orphan Project. He decided to do Shelter house and Madrasa (Islamic Institution) for the orphans. He carried out the building construction and finally it was opened in March 1989, by Alhaj Samsul Alam Choudhury. He also managed to get 600 decimals of paddy fields for this project. There were so many trees that had been planted, so that in the future, these trees can be sold and generate further funds for this project, he added.
He also created a fund from his own savings and opened a fixed deposit account, so that for the future the running costs can be met from this fund. At present, his family is contributing every month to meet the running cost of this project. He is also involved with setting up an Islamic Institution known as “Darul Hadis Latifia” in Oldham.
He is the father of two sons and three daughters. All of his children have obtained higher degrees from University.
He had his first heart attack in 1996 his doctor advised him to take full rest. Since then, he is not working but continuing does his voluntary work as a community worker.
His eldest son designed an aircraft; this has been approved by the air force authority and Second son went to highest mountain (Himalayas). These are the achievement by his sons. Many other people have achieved different things, so these are the positive steps forward for the second generation and future generation to follow.
He spends his retirement time with his family and friends. Also he continuously does his community work throughout the UK and Bangladesh.
He said if he would of never had come to Britain, then he could have completed his degree in Bangladesh but it was very difficult to get a good job. He came to Britain; he sees this as a positive step towards developing many businesses and getting involved with community work. He had the opportunity to do these kinds of businesses and carried out charity work.
He is also involved with establishing a diabetic hospital in Habigonj. Upto now they have spent 4, 00, 00,000.00 Taka for the construction of building and they have been able to build a three story building. He said “we have a plan to develop this project as a medical college along with a diabetic hospital.
He also said “there was no electricity in his village, where he established the Shelter House for the orphans; he had taken the initiative to get the electricity supply set up in that area and now all the villagers are getting the benefits”. Due to the success of setting the charity project many people like the local politician, doctor, layers, bankers, engineers and successful businessman given their whole hearted support towards the development and advancing the charity project.
8.45.6 Independence of Bangladesh:
He admitted that he is involved in the Bangladeshi politics. He said, in 1966 Awamileague declared six points demand to the Pakistani ruling party, he supported this demand and since then he is actively involved with Bangladeshi politics.
He said in 1967, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was alleged by a false case by the Pakistani authority, known as (Agortola Conspiracy Case) and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested.
He said “I was involved in arranging solicitors and barristers from the UK to deal with this case and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released from their custody”. When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released from the custody, he wished to meet with those people, who arranged the legal assistance. As a result, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came to London to meet with them.
In 1968, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came to London, he took a Limousine on behalf of the London Awamileague to bring him from the hotel to party conference in Exeter. He met with Sheik Mujibur Rahman at the hotel. At that time he was having his morning tea. He set there for few minutes, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was waiting for a phone call from Bangladesh.
He asked Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a question to break the ice; the question was “uncle, when you went to jail, do you get the same treatment as the other people did?” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman replied to his question and said to him “I’ve been to jail so many times, almost all my life, most of the time I was in a different jail, so which one should I tell you”.
We asked him, why he called Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as uncle, is he related to you. He said no “I used to call Gous Khan and Abdul Mannan (Sanu Miah) as my uncle and they were very close friend of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which was the main reason to call them uncle on that day”.
In 1969, the London Awamileague donated a 12 seated minibus to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for the 1970 general election. He had taken the mini bus with him, when he went to Bangladesh. He endorsed in his passport that he is taking a minibus with him and went to Bangladesh.
He went to the party office on 52 Nobabpur Road, Dhaka and met with the party chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman then requested another senior leader Gulam Sorwar; the organising Secretary to go with him to Chittagong to release the minibus from the sea port.
On the next day, he went to Chittagong to get the minibus and returned to Dhaka and handed the keys to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On behalf of the London Awamileague, he also gave 10,000.00 rupees to Dewan Farid Gazi, a local MP candidate from Habigonj.
On 23rd March 1971 he received a telegraph from party office in Dhaka and he went to Dhaka on same night. He went to Dhaka at the party office and found only 4/5 people in there. Then they went to Sunargah Hotel to meet with the other political leaders. He met Ismoth Chowdhury and Farid Gazi.
In 1971, 25th March the war had begun and everyone left their houses and looked for shelter, where they can save their own life. He was advised to leave Dhaka and go to his home town in Habigonj. After that he left Dhaka and it took a month to go to his home town.
After arriving at his home, he decided to bring his wife. He brought his wife, without having a marriage ceremony function. At that time, during the liberation period, one of his relatives was the chairman of Peace Committee in Habigonj area. He received a letter from him.
In this letter it was mentioned that after receiving this letter, he should leave his home immediately and find a safe place for shelter. At that time, there were a few leaders living at his house, those are Ali Amjad (Moulvibazar), Abdus Salam, Dr. Hasim and Suroth Miah from Habigonj. He had taken these people to a safe place for shelter.
He realised that living in that situation was not safe, so he returned to UK in June 1971. In August 1971, they organised a demonstration in France. He was amongst others, who were showing their support for the country. They demonstrated in front of the World Bank in France, they raised their voice with slogans such as “do not provide any financial support to the West Pakistan, who invaded East Pakistan”.
8.45.7 Conclusion:
He said the Bangladeshi community has been doing the community development in many ways. There are many young people getting the degrees from university and doing good jobs like Doctors, Engineers and so on. This is a great achievement for the Bangladeshi community in general.
He also made a comment about the curry business in the UK. He said considering the economic down turn, although many businesses have been affected this industry has been grown and has a good position in the British economy. The young people are also taking responsibility to run this industry as curry became a very popular dish in the UK. He said, “The young business people will be able to hold this industry, as they are working hard to maintain the good quality food”.
He invited all the Bangladeshi community to come forward to work towards community development work. More specifically he said, “Everyone should get involved in setting up schools, colleges, mosques and Madras’s in their village and town.
He also encourages the young people to get involved in community work and politics in order to do better in the future.