Paper No.

: 08 Human Population Genetics

Module : 21 Consanguineous Marriages in India

Development Team
Prof. Anup Kumar Kapoor
Principal Investigator
Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi

Paper Coordinator Prof. Gautam K. Kshatriya

Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi

Content Writer Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gautam

Dr. H.S.G.University, Sagar, MP

Content Reviewer Prof. A.Paparao Sri

Venkateswara University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh

Human Population Genetics

Anthropology
Consanguineous Marriages in India
 Description of Module

Subject Name Anthropology

Paper Name 08 Human Population Genetics

Module Name/Title Consanguineous Marriages in India

Module Id 21

Human Population Genetics

Anthropology
Consanguineous Marriages in India
 CONTENTS:
Learning outcomes: At the end of the module the reader will know
 Consanguineous Marriages
 Reasons of consanguinity
 Sociodemographic aspects of consanguinity
 Religious and legal regulation of consanguineous marriage
 Preferential Consanguineous Union
 State wise prevalence of consanguineous marriages in India
 Religion wise prevalence of consanguineous marriages in India
 Drawback of Consanguineous marriages

Introduction
Marriage is a universal institution evolved in the course of cultural-evolution. It is a legally and
socially sanctioned union between one or more husbands and one or more wives that accords status to
their offspring and is regulated by laws, rules, customs, beliefs and attitudes that prescribe the rights
and duties of the partners. The universality of marriage within different societies and cultures is
attributed to the many basic social and personal functions for which it provides structure, such as
procreation, sexual gratification and regulation, care of children and their education and socialization,
regulation of lines of descent, division of labour between the sexes, economic production and
consumption, and satisfaction of personal needs for affection, status, and companionship.
India is a country of diversities, where variety of cultures and people co-exists. Beside bio-
ethnic variation, the people are divided into various caste groups. Even, the religious groups like
Christianity and Islam have casteism or they are treated as a caste. These castes are endogamous.
Beside castes and religious groups, Indian is also inhabited by a large number of tribal groups many of
them are in the earliest stage of development and cultural-evolution. Earliest form of cultural
institutions like matrilineality and polyandry still exist among Indian tribes (Gautam and Kshatriya
2011, Gautam, Kshatriya and Kapoor, 2007).
There are different types and form of marriages based on different criterion. For example:
group marriage, polygamy, monogamy, endogamy, exogamy, hypergamy, hypogamy, levirate
marriage, sorrorate marriage and so on. Consanguineous marriage is based on kinship.
The word consanguineous comes from the two Latin words “con” meaning shared and
“sanguis” meaning blood. Consanguinity describes a relationship between two people who share an
ancestor, or share blood. Such marriages are favoured by different populations usually bound to
traditional customs, beliefs and to keep property in united form within the family.

Human Population Genetics

Anthropology
Consanguineous Marriages in India
 The occurrence of consanguinity in a population depends on various factors viz. population
structure, migration, cultural practices and so on. Generally very close consanguineous mating are
avoided in human population. Practically, in all human societies incest is considered to be taboo. The
degree of relationship at which mating is considered incestuous may differ slightly from one society to
another, but, in general, parent-offspring and brother-sister mating are forbidden in all societies. Still,
incestuous union may be in most of the societies, but, they are negligible in proportion.
All human societies have some incest taboos. These are rules and laws that prohibit marriage or
sexual relations, or both, between certain kinds of kin. The kinds of kin always include some
consanguineous classes, and one theory of the establishment of incest laws is folk knowledge of
undesirable inbreeding effects in offspring of such unions. Incest taboos are not uniform restrictions to
a particular grade, however, and often extend to non-consanguineous relations. Other theories of the
origin of incest, therefore, include analysis of its effects on stability of the family as an economic and
educational unit and ascribe the definition of incest in various societies to social and psychological
motives.
Consanguineous marriage is practiced by many communities around the world. Literature reports a
historically high prevalence among the Middle East countries, North Africa and South Asia accounting
for 20-50+% of all marriages. First cousin (F = 0,0625) unions are more frequent comprising 20-30%
of all marriages (Bittle and Black, 2010 and Bittle 2010).This social custom is practiced mainly for
religious and economic reasons. In some religions marriages between first cousins and uncle-niece is
permitted, but not between brothers and sisters. Among the Hindu population of South India, about
30% of marriages are consanguineous, with 20+% between uncle-niece unions (F = 0.125) (Bittle et al.
1991). Marriage of a boy with his mother's brother's daughter is opposed. But, uncle-niece unions (but
not aunt-nephew) are permitted in Judaism. In Arab Muslim communities, first cousin unions between
a man and his father's brother's daughter are preferred.
India is subdivided into two major regions with respect to a preference for or avoidance of
consanguineous marriage, a subject that strongly attracted the attention of J. B. S. Haldane (Haldane
1963). The interest expressed by Haldane was instrumental both in the inclusion of a sub-survey on
consanguinity within the 1961Census of India (Roychoudhury 1976) and in numerous subsequent
studies into the prevalence of both consanguineous and affinal marriage (Chakravarti 1968;
Roychoudhury 1976, 1979; Singh and Tyagi 1987).\

Reasons of consanguinity

There are several circumstances that would give a population a reason to practice consanguinity at a
large scale. Some of these reasons for practicing consanguinity include royalty, religion, rural
background, culture, casteism, poverty, isolation and small population size. Among many of Indian
tribes cross cousin marriages are considered as preferential marriage.

Human Population Genetics

Anthropology
Consanguineous Marriages in India
 Consanguineous unions are preferred in some communities as it is believed to strengthen family
relations. The fear of marrying with stranger, maintenance of family property, requirement of less
economic transaction (dowry) and cultural practices favour intra-familial marriages (Bittles, 1994).
Marriages within the relatives are also believed to be more stable, have better relationships with in-
laws, favors the practice and continuity of cultural practices. Parents believe that in close kin
relationships physical traits of the bride will be less important and in-laws will be more caring and
supportive (Bittles, 1994). Among the major population studies reported consanguinity is found to be
associated with socio-economic levels, education and rural communities.

Sociodemographic aspects of consanguinity

The specific types of consanguineous marriage that are favoured can vary quite widely between and
within different countries, with religious, ethnic, and tribal traditions playing a major role at local and
national levels. The reasons most commonly given for the popularity of consanguineous marriage can
be summarized as: a strong family tradition of consanguineous unions; the maintenance of family
structure and property, and the strengthening of family ties; financial advantages relating to dowry or
bridewealth payments; the ease of marital arrangements and a closer relationship between the wife and
her in-laws; and greater marriage stability and durability (Bittles 1994). The degree of social
compatibility, and the close involvement of the entire family in consanguineous unions, may explain
both the greater stability that has been claimed for consanguineous unions, which have lower divorce
rates, and enhanced female autonomy. Among the major populations so far studied, the highest rates of
consanguineous marriage have been associated with low socioeconomic status, illiteracy, and rural
background.

In some populations a high prevalence of marital unions between close relatives has however been
reported among land-owning families, and in traditional ruling groups and the highest socioeconomic
strata (Bittles 1994, 1995a).

Religious and legal regulation of consanguineous marriage

There appears to be no particular rationale for the subdivision of human populations into opposing
forms of marriage preference, and even within the major religions there are quite marked differences in
attitude to close kin marriage (Bittles et al. 1999). Thus in Christianity, the Orthodox churches prohibit
consanguineous marriage, the Roman Catholic church currently requires Diocesan permission for
marriages between first cousins, and the Protestant denominations sanction marriages up to and
including first cousin unions.

A similar degree of non-uniformity exists in Hinduism. The Aryan Hindus of northern India prohibit
marriage between biological kin for approximately seven generations on the male side and five
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 generations on the female side (Kapadia 1958). By comparison, Dravidian Hindus of South India
strongly favor marriage between first cousins of the type mother’s brother’s daughter (MBD) and,
particularly in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, uncle-niece marriages also are
widely contracted.

In general, Muslim regulations on marriage parallel the Judaic pattern detailed in Leviticus 18: 7-18.
However, uncle-niece unions are permitted in Judaism. Yet they are forbidden by the Koran, even
though double first cousin marriages, which have the same coefficient of inbreeding (F = 0.125), are
recognized within Islam. In southern Asia, Buddhism sanctions marriage between first cousins,
whereas the Sikh religion forbids consanguineous marriage, although some minority Sikh groups
appear to exercise flexibility in the observance of this proscription.

Legislation

A similar lack of coherence exists in legislation enacted in different countries to govern permitted
types of consanguineous relationships in marriage. For example, first cousin marriages are legal in
countries such as the U.K. and Australia, but they are criminal offenses in eight of the states of the
U.S.A. and illegal in a further 31 states (Ottenheimer 1990). Yet exceptions can be incorporated into
state laws, for example, to permit uncle-niece marriage within the Jewish community of Rhode Island
(Bratt 1984).

Legislation approved and adopted at the national level may also prove to be inoperable in practice, as
exemplified by the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955 which includes a ban on uncle-niece marriage
(Kapadia 1958). Yet in a study conducted between 1980 and 1989 in Bangalore and Mysore, the two
major cities of the state of Karnataka in southern India, 21.3% of Hindu marriages were uncle-niece
unions (Bittles et al. 1992). Consanguineous unions are regarded as customary for the peoples of
southern India, i.e. those living south of the Narmada River. Cross-cousin marriage was recognized in
the Hindu Marriage Act of

1955, and the legality of uncle–niece unions was subsequently confirmed in the Hindu Code Bill of
1984 (Appaji Rao et al. 2002).

Preferential Consanguineous Uni

Most common form of consanguineous marriage in all major societies is between first cousins, the
importance of customary influences is apparent from variations in the specific types of first-cousin
marriage contracted. While marriage to mother’s brother’s daughter is the strongly preferred form of
consanguineous union among Indian Hindus, all four types of first-cousin union, i.e. to father’s

Human Population Genetics

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Consanguineous Marriages in India
 brother’s daughter, to father’s sister’s daughter, to mother’s brother’s daughter, and to mother’s sister
daughter, are common among different Indian population.

State wise prevalence of consanguineous marriages in India

ndia is a multi ethnic, multi-lingual country having wide diversity on the basis of region, religion,
caste, culture, custom, believes and so on. In most of the cases, there are arrange marriages. Caste
endogamy is also very common. In spite of different forms of marriages, a wide range of population in
Indian still practice consanguinity or consanguineous marriages.
As per National Family Health Survey 1992-93 (IIPS 1995) south of India has higher prevalence of
consanguineous marriages. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have highest prevalence (30%) of such
marriages; followed by Maharashtra (21%) and Goa (10.6%). Kerala and Uttar Pradesh have almost
similar prevalence of consanguineous marriages i.e.
7.5%. In northern India the highest prevalence of consanguineous marriages are in the state of Jammu
and Kashmir (8%) followed by Uttar Pradesh. The lowest prevalence of such marriages were reported
from the state of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh i.e. nearly 1%. The capital of India i.e. Delhi
have 4.3% consanguineous marriages. In central India, the prevalence varies from 4.1 to 7.5%. In east
India the prevalence is 5 to 5.7%. In general, the prevalence of consanguineous marriages is low in
North-East India. The state of Arunachal Pradesh have 3.9% of such marriages, which is highest in
North-East and Mizoram have lowest (0.5%) consanguineous marriages

Table 2: Consanguineous marriages among different Indian population (After Bittle 1998).

Human Population Genetics

Anthropology
Consanguineous Marriages in India
 For further elucidation of state wise consanguineous marriages and mean coefficient of inbreeding (F)
the data are presented in Table 1 and Figure 1. The all India average of consanguineous marriages was
11.9%. In different sporadic studies around the country during 1961 to 1993 the prevalence of
consanguineous marriages varies from 0.5% to 46% (Table 2)

Human Population Genetics

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 Table 3. Consanguineous marriages in India by Religion, 1992-1993 (After Bittles 2002).

Religion Consanguineous marriages (%) Mean coefficient of inbreeding (F)

Hindu 10.6 0.0068

Muslim 23.3 0.0141

Christian 10.3 0.0068

Sikh 1.5 0.0009

Jain 4.3 0.0024

Buddhist 17.1 0.0107

Others 8.7 0.0053

Human Population Genetics

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Consanguineous Marriages in India
 Figure 3. Religion wise prevalence of consanguineous marriages in India.
Consanguineous marriages by religion in India are presented in Table 3 and Figure 3. It is
apparent that the Muslims have higher prevalence (31%) of consanguineous marriages
followed by Buddhist 22%. Hindu and Christian have similar prevalence of such marriages
i.e. 14%. Jain and Sikh have 6% and 2% consanguineous marriages respectively.

Drawback of Consanguineous marriages

Many different types of genetic disorders have been reported to be more common among
consanguineous progeny, for example congenital disorders (Centerwall and Centerwall 1966;
Asha Bai et al. 1981; Agarwal et al. 1991), including neural tube defects (Kulkarni et al.
1989; Jain et al. 1993) and congenital heart defects (Jain et al. 1993; Badaruddoza et al.
1994; Gnanalingham et al. 1999). Autosomal recessive hearing loss disorders (Chen et al.
1997) and visual defects such as early-onset retinal dystrophies (Rahi et al. 1995), primary
congenital glaucoma (Panicker et al. 2002) and anophthalmos (Hornby et al. 2001) also are
present at increased prevalence. The excess risk that an autosomal recessive disorder will be
expressed in the progeny of a consanguineous union is inversely proportional to the
frequency of the disease allele in the gene pool (Bittles 2001). For this reason, during the last
decade many disease genes that are rare in the general population have been identified and
their chromosomal locations mapped by studying highly inbred families with multiple
affected members.

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 A study has provided the evidence for inbreeding depression on cognitive abilities among
children, with high frequency of mental retardation among offspring in proportion to their
increasing inbreeding coefficients (Fareed and Afzal, 2014a). The depression on growth
parameters (height, weight and body mass index) due to inbreeding among children has
revealed the significant increase in underweight cases with increasing inbreeding coefficients
(Fareed and Afzal, 2014b).
Primary infertility appeared to be reduced and there was little general evidence of
increased numbers of miscarriages or stillbirths among consanguineous union (Bittles 2001).
Thus a meta-analysis conducted on 30 populations showed that at levels of consanguinity
from F = 0.0156 to F = 0.125 the mean number of live births was higher in consanguineous
than nonconsanguineous unions, and for first-cousin marriages (F = 0.0625) the fertility

Differential was significant at P < 0.0001 (Bittles et al. 2002). Most studies in India have
indicated that early postnatal mortality is higher in the progeny of consanguineous unions,
owing to the expression of deleterious recessive genes. Consanguinity-associated deaths are
largely concentrated during the first year of life (Hussain et al. 2001), and multiple deaths
have been reported in specific consanguineous families in proportion to the level of parental
genetic relatedness (Bittles et al. 1991). The mean coefficient of inbreeding for the total
population of India in the 1992–1993 National Family and Health Survey (IIPS 1995) was a
= 0.0075 (table 1). The data of Bittles and Neel (1994), where consanguinity associated
mortality to approximately 10 years of age averaged 44/1000 births at F = 0.0625, would
suggest that on a national basis consanguinity would be a contributory factor in 5.2/1000
deaths (Bittles 2002).
A recessive gene carried in a single dose in a common ancestor may remain hidden
until it comes to light for the first time in an inbred descendant. Therefore, recessive traits
will occur with increased frequency in the progeny of consanguineous mates

Conclusion

It is established that increased urbanization and the gradual shift to smaller family sizes will
impose constraints on consanguineous marriage in future generations. In this respect, a
reduced prevalence of uncle–niece marriages would appear to be especially likely because of
unacceptable age differentials between the potential partners (Radha Rama Devi et al. 1982).
It seems probable that this decline will not be uniform in effect across populations but will be
mainly observed in urbanized populations and among couples who share higher educational
standards and later ages at marriage. The specific type of consanguineous union contracted
may also prove to be an important determining factor.

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 As family sizes reduce, double first cousin and uncle-niece marriages in particular will
become increasingly difficult to arrange within the accepted norms of spousal age difference
at marriage. At the same time, there may be lesser emphasis placed on the requirement to
marry within the prescribed consanguineous marriage pattern, for example, mother's brother's
daughter in southern India, in order to ensure that a marriage within the family can be
contracted. At the same time it should be noticed that in the Muslim population of India there
has been no evidence of a reduction in consanguineous marriage during the last 40 years
(Hussain and Bittles 2000).

With improving socioeconomic conditions, the incidence of primarily "environmental"

disease is declining in most developing countries owing to better basic public health
measures and the introduction of vaccination programs for lethal childhood infectious
diseases. As a result, genetic disorders now account for an increasing proportion of morbidity
and death. This epidemiological transition has already been observed over the course of the
last two generations in more developed, low mortality countries, and within the last two
decades it also has become evident in the Gulf States, where favorable socioeconomic
circumstances have been translated into advanced diagnostic and health care facilities.

Our limited knowledge and understanding of consanguinity is unfortunate, especially since in

Western societies the information that is available tends to be overly focused on the
undesirable clinical outcomes of close kin marriage, which adversely affect a minority of
families and individuals. This lack of balance operates to the detriment of the much larger
proportion of consanguineous couples whose children do not show identifiable deleterious
biological effects, and to whom the social and economic benefits of a consanguineous union
appear obvious.

Given the numbers of consanguineous marriages contracted in the world's most populous
country like India, and the fact that inherited disorders which currently are lethal in less
developed societies, it is essential that multidisciplinary surveys should be conducted to
estimate the extent of the problem, accompanied by the initiation of community-based
counseling programs and lifetime care under improved treatment facilities. Programs of this
nature would clearly be beneficial to human society as a whole.

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Human Population Genetics

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