Jaipur, the Pink City of Rajasthan, is also home to one of India’s most enduring eco-friendly crafts: handmade paper making. With its roots in Mughal-era papermaking traditions, Jaipur’s paper artisans transform waste into beauty—recycling cotton rags, hosiery waste, and plant fibres into soft, durable, and textured sheets using traditional methods.

The process involves manual pulping, moulding, pressing, and sun-drying the paper without chemicals or bleaches. The paper is often infused with marigold petals, grass, silk threads, or neem leaves, resulting in sheets that are visually artistic and biodegradable. These are used for stationery, invitations, packaging, art books, and even paper mâché craft.

Jaipur is also home to Asia’s largest handmade paper factory, where artisans combine heritage technique with modern eco-design sensibilities. Their paper is known for its strength, finish, and organic aesthetic—crafted for connoisseurs of both design and sustainability

The handmade paper tradition in Jaipur draws from the historical legacy of the Kagzis—a community of Muslim papermakers patronised by the Mughal emperors. These artisans originally migrated to Rajasthan in the 16th century and set up small-scale paper workshops in Sanganer, a village now globally recognised for both block printing and papermaking.

Their methods were rooted in zero-waste ideology, long before environmental consciousness became a trend. The Jaipur handmade paper movement was later revived in the 20th century by institutions like the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) and Kagzi Handmade Paper Institute, which adapted traditional techniques for contemporary sustainability needs.

Jaipur's handmade paper is now exported worldwide and has played a pivotal role in replacing single-use plastic packaging and chemically processed paper with handcrafted, eco-conscious alternatives.

The Kagzi Mohalla in Sanganer remains a quiet but active center of papermaking, where generations of artisans have passed down the knowledge orally. Master artisan Haji Abdul Ghaffar Kagzi, a respected figure in this tradition, was instrumental in training newer generations in both technique and ethics of the craft—his works featured in multiple exhibitions including Delhi Haat and Surajkund Mela.

In 2006, Jaipur’s handmade paper craft gained global attention when eco-friendly paper wedding cards from Sanganer were used for celebrity and political weddings in India. During the pandemic, local artisans pivoted to producing seed paper masks and eco-friendly packaging, showing the resilience and adaptability of the tradition.

Walking through the courtyards of a Jaipur paper unit, one still hears the slosh of pulp, the creak of hand presses, and sees drying racks of paper dyed in saffron, indigo, and hibiscus—the living poetry of a centuries-old craft.

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