Tariq Rahman works as the Dean of social sciences at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. He has written on the linguistic history of the Muslims of South Asia with titles including, Language and Politics in Pakistan (1996); Language, Ideology and Power: language-learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India (2002) and From Hindi to Urdu: a Social and Political History (2011). He was the first Pakistani to be given the Humboldt Research Award in Germany. He was also given the title of Distinguished National Professor in 2004 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. He has occupied the Pakistan chair at the University of California, Berkeley and has been a research fellow at the University of Heidelberg. He has been a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford several times. He got his first doctorate in English literature from the University of Sheffield in 1985 and upon examination of his published work the University of Sheffield conferred a Doctorate of Letters to him in 2014.