This paper studies how Manju Kapur’s first novel The Difficult Daughters set in the 1940s deals not only with the independence aspired to and obtained by a nation but also the independence yearned after by a woman and member (Virmati) of the same nation. It also examines how Virmati, the female protagonist lives on an edge and is driven to despair, breathing in a conventional and confined atmosphere. Still she puts up silent struggles for an identity and to find her own space and refuses to be a rubber doll. Keywords: oppression, patriarchy, independence, identity, emancipation, autonomy, space etc.