Yousuf Choudhury

Birmingham

1957–2002

Yousuf Choudhury was born in Sylhet, British India in 1928. In 1957 Choudhury migrated to Birmingham to earn money for his family, a responsibility previously held by his elderly uncle. Whilst little is known about Choudhury's work in Birmingham, the city became a site for migrant South Asian labourers who were employed in local industries such as car manufacturing and engineering.

Choudhury became interested in photography and opened a studio in his home. As the movement for Bangladeshi liberation gained traction, Choudhury joined and photographed meetings and protests in Birmingham and London. This documentary evidence critically demonstrated the scale of support for Bangladeshi liberation amongst diasporic communities in the UK. During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Choudhury travelled to Bangladesh to find his daughter, who he had lost contact with when war broke out. He was able to track her down and took her to Birmingham with him. The photographs generated from this period were published as an album in 2004, after a prolonged process of identifying the people in the photographs – in collaboration with the Bangladesh Action Committee – and presenting the output to contributors. The album is titled An Album of 1971: Bangladesh Liberation Movement. 

In his later years, Choudhury was committed to documenting the histories of Bangladeshis who settled in Britain. His first books on the histories of Bangladeshis in Britain, titled The Roots and Tales of the Bangladeshi Settlers and Sons of Empire, documented the testimonies of men who served in the British Army during the First World War and Second World War. These men, often lascars, settled in Britain and Choudhury documented how they navigated housing, employment and relationships. He was also interested in the history of Britain’s Indian restaurant trade.

Yousuf Choudhury died in 2002.