Manoj Kumar Lamba wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

In the south marriage between cousins ( brother and sisters children) is very common  and preferred because of various reasons. In some communities marrying mother's brother is also the norm and is very much in practice ..

In North these type of marriages are not allowed. If couple have same Gotra, then may be they have no family relation, are considered as brother and sister and not allowed to marry.

True, it is not healthy but like Rambabu said this is done for property and financial reasons..It also has the blessings of the family elders and the community members.

True. Elders both in rural and urban regions are unaware of the ill effects of marriages within the family.

In my region 4 Gora of the couple going to be married should not match. Two from mother side and two from father side of both couple. 

Bride and a Bridegroom belonging to the same Gotra are considered to be siblings and hence it is prohibited for them to marry even if they belong to distant families. The reason given was since they belonged to the same ancestor, it will be like a brother marrying a sister which is known to cause genetic disorders in their offspring.

The gotras are supposed to have been derived originated from particular rishis thousands of years ago. Since then they have lost theoir genetic similarity and today have no meaning. These days they are used more as a control measure by vested panchayats and scheming elders. 

It's more about scheming elders.  Many elders think that relations and the property should remain within the family.

Increasing urbanisation should reduce their interference.

Of course, it helps. Nuclear families are far better, where there is no problem interference

Although some communities still follow this , they become helpless when youngsters choose their own partners from other communities ..similarly in time this practice will die out and one can see that it is already diminishing with the breakdown of the joint family system.

Yes. The younger generation are against marriages within the family in urban areas. But in rural affluent families are still sticking to it. Of course this practice is going to die with time.