The tani-origin tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam: A note on identity formations Dabi Tajen Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, India. Email: tajen.dabi@rgu.ac.in Online published on 22 September, 2017. Abstract The Tani-origin tribes of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam: A Note on Identity Formations Abstract The tribes belonging to Tani ancestral group inhabits the central part of Arunachal Pradesh and the upper banks of Brahmaputra River. Historical circumstances of migration, the nature of contacts with the outside world during the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial times and ethnographic profiling led to the rise of separate entities within the Tani tribes. The Tani people have common origin-myth and linguistic ancestry. This is proved by their rich but dwindling oral narratives, similar cultural practices and language. However, these factors did not contribute to emergence of a wider Tani identity. This article tries to understand the process of formation of identities amongst the Tani tribes using pre-colonial, colonial and post colonial ethnographic profiling. Their contemporary residence in two different states of the northeast India, in two contrasting physical and ecological environments, presents an interesting sociology of how migration patterns, ecology and ethnographic profiling in official texts influence the nature of identity construction subsequently. Top Keywords Identity, Tani, Migration, Isolation, Assimilation, Northeast India. Top |