Editing Rajput (section)

===Female infanticide===
[[Female infanticide in India|Female infanticide]] was practised by Rajputs of low ritual status seeking upward mobility as well as Rajputs of high ritual status. However, there were instances where it was not practised and instances where the mother tried to save the infant girl's life. According to the officials in the early Raj era, in [[Etawah]] ([[Uttar Pradesh]]), the [[Gahlot]], Bamungors and [[Bais (clan)|Bais]] would kill their daughters if they were rich but profit from getting them married if they were poor.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann">{{cite book|author1=Harald Fischer-Tiné|author2=Michael Mann|title=Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CWzuCykUKV4C&pg=PA124|year=2004|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-092-1|pages=124–140}}</ref>

The methods used of killing the female baby were [[drowning]], [[strangulation]], poisoning, "[[asphyxiation|Asphyxia]] by drawing the [[umbilical cord]] over the baby's face to prevent respiration". Other ways were to leave the infant to die without food and if she survived the first few hours after birth, she was given poison.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/> A common way to poison the infant during [[breastfeeding]] was by applying a preparation of poisonous plants like [[Datura]], [[Calotropis gigantea#Poisoning|madar]], or [[Papaver somniferum|poppy]] to the mother's breast.<ref name="Kaur1968">{{cite book|author=Manmohan Kaur|title=Role of Women in the Freedom Movement, 1857-1947|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wk4qAAAAYAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Sterling Publishers|page=9|quote=( iii ) Amongst the Rajputs it was a common practice that a mother's breast was smeared with the preparation of 'dhatura ' or Mudar plant or the poppy. The infant drank the milk along with the poison.}}</ref>

Social activists in the early nineteenth century tried to stop these practices by quoting [[Dharmaśāstra|Hindu Shastras]]:
{{blockquote|"to kill one woman is equal to one hundred brahmins, to kill one child is equal to one hundred women, while to kill one hundred children is an offence too heinous for comparison".<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>}}

Infanticide has unintended consequences. The Rajput clans of lower ritual status married their daughters to Rajput men of higher ritual status who had lost females due to infanticide. Thus, the Rajputs of lower ritual status had to remain unmarried or resorted to other practices like marrying widows, levirate marriages (marrying brother's widow) as well as marrying low-caste women such as [[Jats]] and [[Gujars]] or nomads. This resulted in widening the gap between Rajputs of low ritual status and Rajputs of high ritual status.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>

In the late 19th century, to curb the practice, the act VIII of 1870 was introduced. A magistrate suggested:
{{blockquote|"Let every Rajput be thoroughly convinced that he will go to jail for ten years for every infant girl he murders, with as much certainty as he would feel about being hanged if he were to kill her when grown up, and the crime will be stamped out very effectually; but so long as the Government show any hesitation in dealing rigorously with criminals, so long will the Rajpoot think he has chance of impunity and will go on killing girls like before."<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>}}

However, the practical application of the law faced hurdles. It was difficult to prove culpability as in some cases the Rajput men were employed at a distance although the infants could be killed at their connivance. In most cases, Rajput men were imprisoned only for a short time. Between 1888 and 1889, the proportion of girl children rose to 40%. However, the act was abolished in 1912 as punishments were unable to stop infanticide. A historian concludes that "the act, which only scraped the surface of the problem had been unable to civilize or bring about a social change in a cultural world devaluing girl children". In addition to Rajputs, it was observed that Jats and Ahirs also practised infanticide.<ref name="Fischer-TinéMann"/>