Barwaha is a city as well as a municipality situated in the Khargone or West Nimar district in the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. The district is enclosed within the Nimar region, and is a part of the Indore Division. In the prehistoric period, this region was ruled by the Haihayas of Mahishmati (present day Maheshwar). In the early medieval era, the Paramars of Malwa and the Ahirs of Asirgarh ruled the region. In the late medieval era, the region was under Malwa sultanate of Mandu. In 1531 CE, Gujarat sultan Bahadur Shah acquired this area. In 1562 CE, Akbar took possession of this territory together with the whole Malwa and annexed it to the Mughal Empire. In 1740 CE Marathas took the area under their control and in 1778 CE, Peshwa divided this territory among the Maratha rulers, the Holkars of Indore, the Sindhias of Gwalior and the Ponwars of Dhar. In 1948, this territory came to be the West Nimar district of Madhya Bharat. The district spreads over an area of 8030 square km. As boundaries, it has Dhar, Indore & Dewas in the north, and the state of Maharashtra in the south, Khandwa, Burhanpur in the east and Barwani in the West. The district has 5 sub divisions, which are in turn divided into 8 tehsils. The Barwaha sub-division constitutes a single tehsil, Barwaha. Bhikangaon sub-division includes two tehsils, Bhikangaon and Jhiranya. Kasrawad tehsil belongs to the Kasrawad sub-division while Khargone sub-division has three tehsils, namely Khargone, Bhagwanpura and Segaon. Mandaleshwar sub-division constitutes only one tehsil, Maheshwar. The administrative headquarters of the Khargone district are located in the Khargone town. Other towns are Kasrawad, Maheshwar, Bhagwanpura, Jhiranya, Segaon, Bhikangaon and Barwah. Maheshwar, being the one time capital of the Heheya Kingdom and Holkars of Indore is a place of tourist attraction as the former.

As per the 2001 India census, the city of Barwaha has a population of 24,914. Males make up 52% of the population and females comprise 48%. The city has a mean literacy rate of 74%, higher than the nationwide standard of 59.5%. 56% of the males and 44% of the females are literate. 13% of the population is less than 6 years of age.