Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury was born on 12 December 1934, to an aristocratic
Bengali Muslim Chowdhury family known as the
Zamindar family of
Ulania in
Mehendiganj, then located under the
Backergunge District of the
Bengal Province (now
Bangladesh). His ancestor, Sheikh Muhammad Asad Ali, arrived migrated from
Persia to
Ayodhya, later settling in the Bengali city of
Murshidabad. Ali's great great great grandson Muhammad Hanif served as a military commander under
Shaista Khan, the Mughal governor of
Bengal. He was noted to have contributed to the suppression of
Arakanese and
Portuguese pirates in the
Bay of Bengal. Hanif then entered the
greater Barisal region where he served as the
Jamadar of the Sangram Fort in Govindapur and settled in the village of
Tetulia, Hizla. The family were later endowed the title of
Choudhury, and from his descendants, Muhammad Taqi migrated from the Tetulia Jamadar Bari to the village of Ulania. His son, Naya Raja, was Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury's great grandfather. Naya Raja and his two brothers, Hasan Raja and Kala Raja, became notable as traders of
areca nut, salt and rice, and built strong relationships with the
Marwari merchants of
Calcutta during the
Company Raj. The three brothers established the ports of Lalganj, Aliganj and Kaliganj, and with their amassed wealth, established the
zamindari of Idilpur. Chowdhury's father, Wahed Reza Chowdhury, son of Fazel Ali, was a landlord and freedom fighter. He was the president of
Congress's
Bakarganj branch and a member of the All-India Congress Working Committee. Wahed served as a secretary to
Motilal Nehru and was imprisoned in the
1942 August Movement. Choudhury's mother was Zohra Khatun. Choudhury had three brothers, Ali Reza Choudhury (Mehdi) was his younger and Hossain Reja Choudhury his elder. His sisters were Manik Bibi Choudhury, Laili Khatun Choudhury, Saleha Khatun Choudhury, Masuma Begum Choudhury and Fazilatun Nesa Choudhury. ==Education==