The District is named after its head quarter Alirajpur which was capital of the former princely state of Alirajpur. The territory is hilly and many of the inhabitants are Bhil’s. Being tribal dominated community Alirajpur area was being ruled by tribal kings in 15th century.
After the freedom in 1947, Alirajpur territory was absorbed into Indian Union. After that this area became a part of Madhya Bharat Administrate. After constitution of Madhya Pradesh on 1st November, 1956 Alirajpur came into Jhabua district. Although demand of a separate district for Alirajpur was raised but Jhabua was in between Petlawad and Thandla Tahsils on one side and between Jobat and Alirajpur on the other side. Therefore Jhabua was declared as a district headquarter. Since then Alirajpr was division headquarter having three big block development offices Alirajpur, Sondwa and Kattiwara respectively. Out of these Sondwa and Kattiwara Tappa were tahil adquarter. Simultaneously a demand of separate district for Alirajpur was being raised regularly.
The villages Vakhatgarh, Mathwar Kakrana etc. were connected with Narmada river in the interior. Public representative, public and political parties were also demanding of separate district for Alirajpur time to time. During Assembly elections 2003, Uma Bharti promised to make Alirajpur as a separate district. Since then the demand of district for Alirajpur was raised strongly. Due to the pressure of regional public, organizations and Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan delcared Alirajpur a separate district on 17th May, 2008 and thus a new administrative unit, Alirajpur was formed.