Just a little bit of history to put things in perspective. Pleating to the sett is a relatively new thing in the world of kilt making. When Stuart Ruaidri Erskine wrote The Kilt & How to Wear It in 1901, he described pleating to the sett as a very new thing, and he didn't even know if it had a proper name, but he liked it!

Since then it has become the norm, but the norm for most of the nineteenth century was pleating to the stripe.

Kilts, keep in mind, were first tailored at the very end of the eighteenth century. The oldest surviving kilt is from 1792 and it is a Gordon Highlanders regimental kilt, containing less than 4 yards of cloth, box pleated, to the yellow line. All military kilts were pleated to the line (to stripe). Civilian kilts from this period were pleated to no pattern at all (see the main page at http://www.scottishtartans.org for a picture of a civilian kilt c. 1800 which is pleated to no pattern). Civilian kilts eventually adopted the military fashion of pleating to the line sometime around 1815-1820 so that by the mid-1820s the norm for a civilian kilt was about 4 yards of cloth, box pleated to the line.

Box pleating did not come out of India, I'm afraid, nor was it invented as an accedental way of pressing or pleating a knife pleated kilt. All the early tailored kilts were box pelated. The first regiment to adopt knife pleating (side pleating) was the Gordon Highlanders in 1854.

Y'all have a good weekend!
Matt