Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T07:10:53.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Has the long-predicted decline in consanguineous marriage in India occurred?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2019

Nutan Kumari ,
Alan H. Bittles Open the ORCID record for Alan H. Bittles [Opens in a new window]  and
Prem Saxena
Nutan Kumari
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India
Alan H. Bittles
Affiliation:
School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia Centre for Comparative Genomics, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia
Prem Saxena*
Affiliation:
International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To an extent the question posed in the title of this paper can simply be answered in the affirmative. Based on the extensive data available from the National Family Health Survey-1 (NFHS-1) conducted in 1992–93 and NFHS-4 in 2015–16 there has been a significant overall decline of some 19% in the prevalence of consanguineous marriage in India. However, when examined at state level the picture is more complex, with large reductions in consanguinity in southern states where intra-familial marriage previously has been strongly favoured, whereas in some northern states in which close kin unions traditionally have been proscribed small increases were recorded. In a country such as India, comprising an estimated 18% of the current world population and with multiple ethnic, religious, geographical and social sub-divisions, apparently contrary findings of this nature are not unexpected – especially given the major shifts that are underway in family sizes, in education and employment, and with rapid urbanization. The changing health profile of the population also is an important factor, with non-communicable diseases now responsible for a majority of morbidity and premature mortality in adulthood. The degree to which future alterations in the prevalence and profile of consanguineous marriage occur, and at what rate, is difficult to predict – the more so given the markedly diverse cultural identities that remain extant across the Sub-Continent, and ongoing intra-community endogamy.

Keywords

ConsanguinityIndiaSocio-demographic variables
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 52 , Issue 5 , September 2020 , pp. 746 - 755
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Al Ali, KA (2005) Consanguinity and socio-demographic factors in Qatari population. Qatar Medical Journal 14, 16–19.Google Scholar
Al-Arrayed, S and Hamamy, H (2012) The changing profiles of consanguinity rates in Bahrain, 1990–2009. Journal of Biosocial Science 44, 313–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, SGM (1968) Inbreeding and endogamy in Kerala (India). Acta Genetica et Statistica Medica 18, 369–379.Google Scholar
Allendorf, K and Pandian, RK (2016) The decline of arranged marriage? Marital change and continuity in India. Population Development Review 42, 435–464.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Appaji Rao, N, Savithri, HS and Bittles, AH (2002) A genetic perspective on the South Indian tradition of consanguineous marriage. In Vanden Driesen, C and Nandan, S (eds) Austral-Asian Encounters. Prestige Books, New Delhi, pp. 326–341.Google Scholar
Barakat, B and Basten, S (2014) Modelling the constraints on consanguineous marriage when fertility declines. Demographic Research 30, 277–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bener, A and Alali, KA (2006) Consanguineous marriage in a newly developed population: the Qatari population. Journal of Biosocial Science 38, 239–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhasin, MK, Walter, H and Danker-Hopfe, H (1992) The Distribution of Genetical, Morphological and Behavioural Traits among the Peoples of the Indian Region. Kamla-Raj, Delhi, pp. 14–35.Google Scholar
Bittles, AH (2001) Consanguinity and its relevance to clinical genetics. Clinical Genetics 60, 89–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bittles, AH (2002) Endogamy, consanguinity and community genetics. Journal of Genetics 81, 91–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bittles, AH (2012) Consanguinity in Context. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, AH and Black, ML (2010) Evolution in Health and Medicine Sackler Symposium: consanguinity, human evolution and complex diseases. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 107, 1779–1786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bittles, AH, Mason, WM, Greene, J and Appaji Rao, N (1991) Reproductive behavior and health in consanguineous marriages. Science 252, 789–794.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blencowe, H, Moorthie, S, Petrou, M, Hamamy, H, Povey, S, Bittles, Aet al. (2018) Rare single gene disorders: estimating baseline prevalence and outcomes worldwide. Journal of Community Genetics 9, 397–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Centerwall, WR, Savarinathan, G, Mohan, LR, Booshanam, V and Zachariah, M (1969) Inbreeding patterns in rural South India. Social Biology 16, 81–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dandona, L, Dandona, R, Kumar, GA, Shukla, DK, Paul, VK, Balakrishnan, K and India State-level Disease Burden Initiative Collaborators (2017) Nations within a nation: variations in epidemiological transition across the states of India, 1990–2016 in the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet 390, 2437–2460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devi, ARR, Appaji Rao, N and Bittles, AH (1982) Inbreeding in the State of Karnataka, South India. Human Heredity 32, 8–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dronamraju, KR and Meera Khan, P (1960) Inbreeding in Andhra Pradesh. Journal of Heredity 51, 239–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gadgil, M, Joshi, NV, Manoharan, S, Patil, S and Prasad, UVS (1998) Peopling of India. In Balasubramanian, D and Appaji Rao, N (eds) The Indian Human Heritage. Universities Press, Hyderabad, pp. 100–129.Google Scholar
Geldsetzer, P, Manne-Goehler, J, Theilmann, M, Davies, JI, Awasthi, A, Danaei, Get al. (2018) Geographic and sociodemographic variation of cardiovascular disease risk in India: a cross-sectional study of 797,540 adults. PLoS Medicine 15, e1002581.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grjibovski, A, Magnus, P and Stoltenberg, C (2009) Decrease of consanguinity among parents of children born in Norway to women of Pakistani origin: a registry-based study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 37, 232–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guha, R (2017) Becoming an Indian. Journal of Genetics 96, 805–814.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haldane, JBS (1965) The implications of genetics for human society. In Geerts, SJ (ed.) Genetics Today, Proceedings of the XI International Congress of Genetics, Pergamom Press, The Hague, pp. 91–102.Google Scholar
Hamamy, H (2012) Consanguineous marriages. Journal of Community Genetics 3, 185–192.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamamy, H, Antonarakis, SE, Cavalli-Sforza, LL, Temtamy, S, Romeo, G, ten Kate, LPet al. (2011) Consanguineous marriages, pearls and perils: Geneva International Workshop Report. Genetics in Medicine 13, 841–847.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harkness, G and Khaled, R (2014) Modern traditionalism: consanguineous marriage in Qatar. Journal of Marriage and the Family 76, 587–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hosseini-Chavoshi, M, Abbasi-Shavazi, MJ and Bittles, AH (2014) Consanguineous marriage, reproductive behaviour and postnatal mortality in contemporary Iran. Human Heredity 77, 16–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Islam, MM (2012) The practice of consanguineous marriage in Oman: prevalence, trends and determinants. Journal of Biosocial Science 44, 571–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Islam, MM, Ababneh, FM and Khan, MHR (2018) Consanguineous marriage in Jordan: an update. Journal of Biosocial Science 50, 573–578.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kapadia, KM (1958) Marriage and Family in India, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press, Kolkata, pp. 117–137.Google Scholar
Moorjani, P, Thangaraj, K, Patterson, N, Lipson, M, Loh, P-R, Govindaraju, Pet al. (2013) Genetic evidence for recent population mixture in India. American Journal of Human Genetics 93, 422–438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nakatsuka, N, Moorjani, P, Rai, N, Sarkar, B, Tandon, A, Patterson, N.et al. (2017) The promise of disease gene discovery in South Asia. Nature Genetics 49, 1403–1407.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
NFHS-1 (1992–93) National Family Health Survey-1. International Institute of Population Studies, Mumbai.Google Scholar
NFHS-4 (2015–16) National Family Health Survey-4. International Institute of Population Studies, Mumbai.Google Scholar
Rao, PSS and Inbaraj, SG (1977) Inbreeding in Tamil Nadu, South India. Social Biology 24, 281–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reich, D, Thangaraj, K, Patterson, N, Price, AL and Singh, L (2009) Reconstructing Indian population history. Nature 461, 489–494.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roychoudhury, AK (1976) Incidence of inbreeding in different States of India. Demography India 5, 108–119.Google Scholar
Sanghvi, LD (1966a) Inbreeding in India. Eugenics Quarterly 13, 291–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sanghvi, LD (1966b) Inbreeding in rural areas of Andhra Pradesh. Indian Journal of Genetics 26A, 351–356.Google Scholar
Sanghvi, LD, Varde, DS and Master, HR (1956) Frequency of consanguineous marriages in twelve endogamous groups in Bombay. Acta Genetica et Statistica Medica 6, 41–49.Google Scholar
Sastri, KAN (1955) A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. Oxford University Press, Madras.Google Scholar
Sharkia, R, Mahajnah, M, Athamny, E, Khatib, M, Sheikh-Muhammad, A and Zalan, A (2016) Changes in marriage patterns among the Arab community in Israel over a 60-year period. Journal of Biosocial Science 48, 283–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singh, KS (ed.) (1993) An Anthropological Atlas of India: Ecology and Cultural Traits, Demographic and Biological Traits, vol X1. Oxford University Press, Delhi.Google Scholar
Sirdah, MM (2014) Consanguinity profile in the Gaza Strip of Palestine: large-scale community-based study. European Journal of Medical Genetics 57, 90–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Small, N, Bittles, AH, Petherick, ES and Wright, J (2017) Endogamy, consanguinity and the health implications of changing marital choices in the UK Pakistani community. Journal of Biosocial Science 49, 435–446.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sthanadar, AA, Bittles, AH and Zahid, M (2014) Civil unrest and the current profile of consanguineous marriage in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Journal of Biosocial Science 46, 698–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sthanadar, AA, Bittles, AH and Zahid, M (2016) Debate: Increasing prevalence of consanguineous marriage confirmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Journal of Biosocial Science 48, 418–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uberoi, P (2003) Kinship varieties and political expediency: legislating the family in post-Independence India. In Ochiai, E (ed.) The Logic of Female Succession: Rethinking Patriarchy and Patrilineality in Global and Historical Perspective. International Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, pp. 147–176.Google Scholar