Bagru

Bagru
Bagru Location in Rajasthan, India
Coordinates: 26°49′N 75°33′E / 26.82°N 75.55°E / 26.82; 75.55Coordinates: 26°49′N 75°33′E / 26.82°N 75.55°E / 26.82; 75.55
Country	India
State	Rajasthan
District	Jaipur
Elevation	341 m (1,119 ft)
Population (2001)
• Total	22,089
Languages
• Official	Hindi
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)

Bagru is a city and a municipality in Jaipur district in the state of Rajasthan, India.

Demographics

At the 2001 India census,^[1] Bagru had a population of 22,089. Males constituted 52% of the population and females 48%. Bagru had an average literacy rate of 52%, lower than the national average of 59.5%; with 66% of the males and 34% of females literate. 18% of the population were under 8 years of age.

Economy

Bagru is known for natural dyes and hand block printing. Bagru is the place of Raiger and Chhipa community. Chhipa community people who are involved in this printing tradition since 100 years ago and also Raiger community people are involved in processing and manufacturing of leather and their products (like boots, mochdi, Rajasthani jhutee and other leather goods). The Raiger community export row leather (semi processed) to big leather companies and also sell in local market (Hatwara,Jaipur). Bagru is also known for natural dyeing, indigo dyeing and wooden hand block printing over textile articles. Bagru is also famous for pickles (Achar) manufactured by Jhalani Food Products Pvt. Ltd.

Bagru is a small village, located at a distance of 30 km from Jaipur, on Jaipur-Ajmer Road. The village town of Bagru is not popular for any palace or fort, but for its typical wooden prints. These prints of Bagru are acclaimed all over India and are particularly known as Bagru prints. The Prints of Bagru, unlike other prints, involve a different kind of printing. The unique method for printing employs wooden block in it. In the process, the desired design is engraved on the wooden block first and then the carved block is used for replicating the design in the preferred color on the fabric.

Chippa Mohalla (printer's quarter) is the area for those, who are interested in textile printing. One can walk into the quarter, where people are always engrossed with dyes and blocks. The three-centuries-old tradition of block printing is kept alive with the efforts of Bagru artisans. Keeping the convention, these artisans smear the cloth with Fuller's earth got from the riverside and then dip it in turmeric water to get the habitual cream color background. After that, they stamp the cloth with beautiful designs using natural dyes of earthly shades.

Even today, artisans use traditional vegetable dyes for printing the cloth. Like, the color blue is made from indigo, greens out of indigo mixed with pomegranate, red from madder root and yellow from turmeric. Usually Bagru prints have ethnic floral patterns in natural colors. Bagru prints form the essential part of the block printing industry of Rajasthan. The village fabricates some of the bed covers and other materials.

Education

There are many educational insititutes, including the Government High Secondary School and Mahila Mahavidyalay for girls. MG English International School Bagru was founded by the scholar Manish Gupta who is known for educating more than ten thousand students in this area.

References