Motherhood, Migration, and Feminist Ethics: A Transnational Feminist Reading of Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s Secret Daughter

This paper examines Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s Secret Daughter (2010) through the lens of transnational feminism, arguing that the novel interrogates gendered oppression, motherhood, and reproductive choice within intersecting frameworks of nation, class, race, and global inequality. Moving beyond liberal feminist narratives of individual choice and empowerment, Gowda’s text foregrounds the uneven power relations that structure women’s lives across borders. Through the parallel narratives of Kavita, an Indian woman forced to relinquish her daughter due to patriarchal violence, and Somer, an Indian-American adoptive mother navigating infertility and transnational adoption, the novel exposes the ethical complexities of global motherhood. Drawing on transnational feminist theorists such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Inderpal Grewal, and Nira Yuval-Davis, this study argues that Secret Daughter critiques both Indian patriarchy and Western neoliberal feminism, revealing how women’s reproductive lives are shaped by global capitalism, migration, and nationalist ideologies. The novel ultimately articulates a transnational feminist ethics grounded in care, responsibility, and contextual solidarity rather than universalist notions of women’s liberation.