Currently based in Lahore, he is author of many books and other publications, mainly in the field of linguistics. He has been awarded several national and international awards to recognise his research and scholarly work.[2]
He was born in Bareilly (U.P.) in India on 4 February 1949. The family moved to Pakistan in 1951. His father, Sami Ullah Khan, served as the head of the mathematics department at the Pakistan Military AcademyinKakul, near Abbottabad. Educated at Burn Hall School (now Army Burn Hall College), he joined the army as an armoured corps officer in 1971. However, he decided to leave the army—on the grounds of being a conscientious objector to the military action in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. He finally resigned his commission in 1978. This was recognised by the Government of Bangladesh which conferred upon him a civil award on 1 October 2013 in Dhaka.[4] Meanwhile, he had obtained three master's degrees as a private candidate. In 1979, he won a British Council scholarship, which later enabled him to obtain master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Sheffield in England in 1985. His first PhD was in literature. Later he left the path of literature as his main interest was in social sciences.[2]
Tariq Rahman joined the academia as an associate professor in the English Department of Peshawar University in 1985. In 1987, he became professor and head of the English Department in the University of Azad Jammu and KashmirinMuzaffarabad where he introduced the subject of linguistics. In 1989, he also got an M.Litt. in linguistics from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. In 1990, he joined the National Institute of Pakistan Studies. Dr. Rahman was made distinguished national professor for life in 2004 and a tenured professor in 2007. He joined the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan in 2011 as Dean of the School of Education.[5] In September 2014 he was appointed as the Dean of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences in the same university and he continues to serve at this position to date. He has been Academic Visitor at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and is Ordinary Member of Common Room (subject to rules) at the same college. He has also been Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre of Islamic Studies at the University of Oxford.[5]
November 2011, he was awarded the Humboldt Research Award for his research—being the first Pakistani to get the research award—though many Pakistanis had been given the Humboldt fellowship earlier. In the award ceremony on 20 June 2012, Professor Dr. Helmut Schwarz, president of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung said: 'I am delighted to welcome our first research award winner from Pakistan, Professor Tariq Rahman.' This award was conferred on him for his books such as Pakistani English (1990), A History of Pakistani Literature in English (1991), Language and Politics in Pakistan (1996), Language, Education and Culture (1999), Language, Ideology and Power: Language Learning Among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India (2002), Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of Education and Polarization in Pakistan (2004) and From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History (2011) besides a large number of scholarly papers, conference presentations, book reviews and citations to his work in scholarly writing.
2014, the University of Sheffield awarded him a higher doctorate (Litt. D) after due examination of his total research output in humanities and social sciences.[2]
2015–16, he was elected a visiting fellow at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. Having been a visiting academic for three consecutive years in order to write a book, he was elected a permanent member of the common room at Wolfson College, University of Oxford in 2018.
2018 Higher Education Commission, Pakistan award for Best Book (Social Sciences) of the year for Names: A Study of Personal Names, Identity and Power in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2015).
2018 Elected Permanent Member of the Common-room, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, England.
2020 Awarded the Best Book of the Year (non-fiction) 2019-2020 prize for Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia: an Intellectual History (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2018 and Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2019 and New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2020). Award given by Habib Bank Metropolitan at the Karachi Literary Festival, 2020.
Awarded the Best Book of the Year (non-fiction) 2019-2020 prize for Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia, 9th United Bank Limited Literary Awards, 8 September 2020.
Elected Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences, vide letter of 7 January 2021.
To write his book From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History,[6] Dr. Rahman travelled to some of the major cities in Pakistan and to four other countries: England, France, Germany and India. He studied sources in Urdu, Persian, and Hindi. He also got works in Chaghtai Turkish, French and German translated for himself. He learned the Devanagari script on his own and Persian at the Khana-e-Farhang in Rawalpindi at the age of 58.
He has also published three collections of short stories and has edited two books. His research-based published work is mostly on sociolinguistic history, language and politics and educational linguistics with focus on the Muslims of north India and Pakistan but he has also published on onomastics (Names OUP, 2015) and intellectual history. He has also written more than 107 articles in scholarly journals, 24 entries in reference books, 10 encyclopaedia articles, 45 chapters in books and many book reviews. In addition to Oxford University Press, Karachi, his books have been published by Orient Blackswan in India. His last book Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia: an Intellectual History was published by Walter de Gruyter from Berlin and Boston in 2018 and a paperback edition was published by Oxford University Press in Pakistan in 2019. In 2022 his book Pakistan's Wars: an Alternative History was published by Routledge, Francis and Taylor from London and New York. The South Asia edition was published by Routledge India (New Delhi). His latest book is Handbook of Mirza Ghalib's Poetry and Poetics: Commentaries and Contemporary Concerns (Singapore: Springer Nature, 2024). Also downloadable from ResearchGate and Academia.edu are The Complete Short Stories of Tariq Rahman (2024) and Not the Whole Truth: the Life and Times of Tariq Rahman
1997. An Introduction to Linguistics. Lahore: Vanguard Books Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2010.[6]
1999. Language, Education and Culture. Karachi: Oxford University Press.[6]
2002. Language, Ideology and Power: Language Learning Among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India[6]
2004. Denizens of Alien Worlds: A Study of Education and Polarization in Pakistan Karachi: Oxford University Press.
2010. Linguistics for Beginners: Basic Concepts USA: Oxford University Press[6]
2011. From Hindi to Urdu: A Social and Political History. Karachi: Oxford University Press.[6]
2015 Names: a Study of Personal Names, Identity, and Power in Pakistan Karachi: Oxford University Press.[6]
2018 Interpretations of Jihad in South Asia: an Intellectual History Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.[6] Reprinted 2019, Oxford Pakistan; Orient Blackswan, New Delhi, 2020.
2022 Pakistan's Wars: an Alternative History London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2022; New Delhi: Routledge India, 2022; Lahore: Folio Books, 2022.
2024 Handbook of Mirza Ghalib's Poetry and Poetics: Commentaries and Contemporary Concerns Singapore: Springer Nature.
2024 Complete Short Stories of Tariq Rahman ResearchGate and Academia.edu (downloadable)
2024 Not the Whole Truth: the Life and Times of Tariq Rahman ResearchGate adn Academia.edu (downloadable)
