Jagdish Joshila
The first novelist in the Nimadi language, author of 56 books and a historian of Nimar's freedom fighters, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025.
Nimadi is the language of the Nimar region of Madhya Pradesh. Jagdish Joshila is credited with writing its first novel and its first prose. In 2025 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of literature and education, from Madhya Pradesh [1].
Father of Nimadi prose
Jagdish Joshila was born on 3 June 1949 [2]. He is recognised as the first and only novelist in Nimadi, and as the father of prose writing in the language [2]. Over five decades he has written 56 books, 28 in Hindi and 28 in Nimadi [2].
Remembering unsung heroes
Much of his work documents people history has overlooked. His research on the freedom struggle in the Nimar region and on its little-known martyrs is highly regarded as regional history [2].
The Madhya Pradesh Sahitya Akademi has honoured him with the Ishwari award (2007), the Pandit Balkrishna Sharma “Naveen” award (2016) and the Sant Singaji award (2019) [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2025: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2025: citation for Jagdish Joshila — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
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