Performing Identity The Transformation of a Tangsa Festival in Assam, Northeast India

This article looks at the Wihu kuh festival, which was celebrated by the Tangsa living in Assam in 2010 as their "traditional" festival in an attempt to create a common pan-Tangsa identity. This study reveals the compromises made by the recently converted Christian Tangsa, as well as those still following their traditional practices, in order for them to discover and even invent common shared ground. The factors determining the final form of the festival and the impact this representation has had on the self-image of the Tangsa and their projected identity is also discussed. I illustrate that the new Tangsa identity has been consciously fashioned in a form that not only enables internal consolidation but which also bolsters the social and political position of the Tangsa in the wider world around them. Their principal aim is to project a new multifaceted identity which draws both from their traditional ethnic past and from their modern multi-religious present.