shay, i am personally opposed to this as a standard practice because it gets abused, in many different ways. people want to keep property and wealth within the khandan and biradri so ppl keep inter marrying many times against their will, even in UK there is an issue with this.
second issue, its more complex..in general ppl seem to be more in your business.
third it can get even more complex if your nand is married to your brothers sala type of thing, when things get ugly..they get ugly.
fourth if the person is a good catch and has several interested parties, u invariably piss off the parties who were not pursued.
lastly- ppl get stuck under expectations that they will marry within the khandaan and it is annoying as hell.
I agree with you totally. I mean, I don't OPPOSE them in general, as they are islamically allowed, but I don't want to be in one or have my kids married to their cousins. Too much extra baggage comes with the marraige.