The asymmetrical commercial surrogacy industry in India has been subject to media scrutiny and scholarly debate focusing on biomedical, legal, ethical and feminist concerns. Since 2016, this discourse has taken a contested turn, as the new Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill bans commercial surrogacy and allows only altruistic surrogacy for heteronormative, married, clinically-infertile Indian couples/women. This Bill has been passed by Parliament’s lower house, but is still being debated in the upper house. One recurrent trope underpinning the surrogacy rhetoric is the Hindu figuration of the sacrificing mother, as iconified in the mythical Yashoda. Altruistic surrogacy is usually framed as an ethical extension of selfless motherhood; and commercial surrogacy stakeholders also use the same trope to validate surrogacy. This article critiques how Hindu constructs of motherhood impact the rhetoric and politics of surrogacy in India. Using a three-part analysis, the author discusses a Hindu surrogacy myth, investigates government and media texts on the new Bill, and explores select testimonials of surrogates (sourced through secondary research). The research question in the article is: how are the rights of surrogates being addressed (or diminished) through the use of Hindu motherhood tropes and the framing of surrogacy as gift-giving or unpaid service rather than transaction?

印度不对称的代孕产业受到媒体的审查和学术辩论，重点是生物医学，法律，道德和女权主义问题。自2016年以来，这种讨论方式发生了激烈的争论，因为新的《代孕（法规）条例草案》禁止商业代孕，并且只允许对异性，已婚，临床上不育的印度夫妇/妇女进行无私代孕。该法案已由议会下议院通过，但仍在上议院进行辩论。代表代孕言论的一种反复出现的论调是神话中的Yashoda中所象征的牺牲母亲的印度教塑像。利他主义的代孕通常被认为是无私母亲的道德延伸。商业代孕利益相关者也使用相同的论证来验证代孕。本文对印度教的母亲建构如何影响印度代孕的言论和政治进行了批评。使用三部分分析，作者讨论了印度代孕神话，研究了新法案中的政府和媒体文本，并探索了代孕的精选推荐（通过二次研究获得）。文章中的研究问题是：如何通过使用印度教的母性比喻和将代孕框架作为送礼或无偿服务而不是交易来解决（或减少）代孕的权利？