The British claimed to have 'discovered' the heinous practice of female infanticide and identified the high caste khatris, bedis and rajputs as primarily indulging in the practice. Caste pride/hypergamy and the exorbitant expenditure on marriage/dowry were seen to be primarily responsible for the practice. Contemporary scholarly discourse has, however, shown that the social effect of colonial methods of governance may have been to produce a milieu encouraging son preference, and dowry gradually acquired the very characteristics that the British then sought to reform.