Originally Posted by
jitender.singh
I have been quoting the following from Wiki:
Hindu Mythology:
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In the Mahabharata, one of the two great Hindu Epics, Arjuna took as his fourth wife his first and cross cousin Subhadra, the sister of Krishna. Arjuna had gone into exile alone after having disturbed Yudhisthira and Draupadi in their private quarters. It was during the last part of his exile, while staying at the Dvaraka residence of his cousins, that he fell in love with Subhadra. While eating at the home of Balaramaji, Arjuna was struck with Subhadra's beauty and decided he would obtain her as his wife. Subhadra and Arjuna's son was the tragic hero Abhimanyu. Abhimanyu himself married his first cross-cousin Sasirekha, the daughter of Subhadra's brother Balarama, meaning that first-cousin marriage occurred in the same family for two consecutive generations. Later, Abhimanyu and his other wife Uttara had a son, Parikshit, who eventually succeeded Yudhisthira as the emperor of the Pandava kingdom after Abhimanyu was killed at Kurukshetra.
Hindu Marriage Act:
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In Hinduism marriage within the same gotra is prohibited, where a gotra is believed to be the group of descendants of a sage who lived in the remote past. Two persons in the same gotra cannot marry even if they come from different linguistic areas. However, same-gotra marriages have been legal under Indian civil law since the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955. Additionally, marriages within certain degrees of consanguinity are considered sapinda and banned in Hinduism. Hindu lawgivers differ in the definition of sapinda: at one extreme, according to some sources marriages are prohibited within seven generations on the father's side and five on the mother's side. In contrast, other sources allow cross cousins to marry, including first cross cousins. The Hindu Marriage Act bars marriage for five generations on the father's side and three on the mother's side, but allows cross-cousin marriage where it is permitted by custom.
Genetic Impact:
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Cousin marriage has genetic aspects that do not arise in the case of other marriage-related political and social issues like interracial marriage. This is because married couples possessing higher than normal consanguinity have, on average, an increased chance of sharing genes for recessive traits. Consanguinity means the amount of shared (identical) DNA, the genetic material. The percentage of consanguinity between any two individuals decreases fourfold as the most recent common ancestor recedes one generation. To cite some examples, first cousins have four times the consanguinity of second cousins, while first cousins once removed have half that of first cousins. Rare double first cousins have twice that of first cousins and are as related as half-siblings.
Jat Customs:
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In order to avoid the second cousin marriages, we drafted the rule of marriages in community called lineage exclusion rule (called as gotra exclusion rule). Earlier it was strictly a lineage exclusion rule as we used to have closed paternal relations within the same gotra, closed maternal relations within the mother's and grandmother's gotra. It was drafted to avoid the second cousin marriages in the community.
Over the times the community grew, so did the gotras. But more worryingly, we forgot about the core issue and associated it with shallow honour, as we grew treating girl as inferior in the society and girls' family as inferior to boys' family in marriage functions. This has lead us to current problem, where we don't know if the issue is genetic or honour issue.
My suggestion as solution to the problem is following:
a. Same gotra marriages should be discouraged, not because it affects the honour of the family, but it risks genetic disorder to the offspring of the couple. (we are already doing the same)
b. If in case we get to know a potential same gotra marriage, rather than being hostile and repulsive, we should get the boy and girl (possibly with their family) counselled with doctors, only if they are first or second cousins. Our society needs to be honest towards the problem.
c. For the same gotra couples (who have already married), get them counselled through doctors as well, if they happen to be first or second cousins.