Inakali Assumi

Inakali Assumi is an author, researcher, and an educator. She has a PhD in English literature. She is actively involved in research related to revival and preservation of vulnerable cultural heritage, particularly folk songs, and has been awarded the Samvaad Fellowship enabled by Tata Steel Foundation in 2022. Her short story, ‘The Yellow Dress’ has been included in the post-graduate course of the Department of English at St Joseph University, Nagaland. Some of her books are Voices from the Forgotten Village, a novel; The Yellow Dress, a collection of short stories; and a Sümi drama, titled Niphu lo Athi Kütsüghü Potigha Ighi (The Arrival of Rice Mill in Our Village: A Three Act Drama in Sümi), which is the first drama written in Sümi dialect. Her works have been a subject of research by young scholars for their cultural relevance. She has directed and produced a documentary film, A Documentation of Vanishing Sümi Folksongs, which showcases a number of ancestral Sümi folk songs almost on the verge of extinction with no folk singers to carry them forth.