The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru held him in high esteem and frequently attended the mushaira at Lala Kishan Lal Kalra's United Coffee House where Josh recited his poetry.

[1][2][3][4] Some of his works were translated to English like The Unity of Mankind elegies by Josh Malihabadi by Syed Akbar Pasha Tirmizi.

Josh was born to an Urdu-speaking Muslim family of Afridi Pashtun origin in Malihabad (13 miles from Lucknow), United Provinces, British India.

[8] Soon thereafter, he founded the magazine Kaleem (literally, "speaker" in Urdu), in which he wrote articles in favour of independence from the British Raj in India.

Subsequently, he became more actively involved in the freedom struggle (albeit, in an intellectual capacity) and became close to some of the political leaders of that era, especially Jawaharlal Nehru (later to be the first Prime Minister of independent India).

Professor Mohammad Hassan, a promi ent scholar of Ehtesham's lineage, then wrote a nearly 100 page epilogue on Josh in 1987, that will soon be published by JLSC, Calgary.

Hilal Naqvi, eminent poet and researcher almost devoted his entire life in gathering and publishing Josh's work.

[2] Josh Literary Society of Canada (JLSC) was formed by Iqbal Haider, Arshad Vasti, Shaista Rizvi, Naheed Kazmi, Nighat Haider, Hasan Zaheer, Aqeel Athar, Alim Ghaznavi, Abdul Qavi Zia and others in February 1983 in Calgary, Canada.

JLSC convened its first literary conference in Calgary in February 1986 under the title of Josh – The Poet of the Century, with a keynote article by the eminent scholar Professor Mumtaz Hussain.