Key takeaways
- Open relationship: a couple agrees that either partner can see others. Polyamory: more than one loving relationship, with everyone's knowledge.
- The difference from an affair is consent. In an affair, the partner doesn't know or agree.
- Interest in India is real but self-reported: 41% open to it, and 35% saying they're already in one, in a 2025 survey commissioned by a dating app.
- Relationships between consenting adults aren't a crime, but marrying a second person while your spouse is alive is bigamy, an offence under Section 82 of the BNS.
- Couples who try it usually set clear rules first and revisit them often.
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What does open relationship mean?
An open relationship is a committed couple who agree that either of them can see other people. The terms vary: some couples allow dating, others only casual encounters; some want to know everything, others prefer not to. What they share is an agreement made in the open.
Polyamory means having more than one loving relationship at the same time, with everyone involved aware of it. Both fall under the wider term ethical, or consensual, non-monogamy.
| Topic | Open relationship | Polyamory | Affair |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partner knows? | Yes, by agreement | Yes, everyone involved | No |
| Ties to others | Usually limited by the couple's rules | More than one loving relationship | Hidden |
| Rules | Agreed and revisited | Agreed by everyone involved | None agreed |
How common are open relationships in India?
Hard to know, because the only figures come from surveys commissioned by dating apps. The most recent is a May 2025 Ipsos survey for Gleeden of 1,510 people aged 18 to 60 in 12 cities. In it, 41% said they would be open to an open relationship if their partner suggested it, 35% said they were already in one and 26% said they were seriously considering one. 55% expected open relationships to become the dominant trend in the next 10 years, and 59% thought non-monogamous relationships would be taken up by wider Indian society.
Treat the “already in one” figure with care: people define open relationships differently, the sample is urban, and a dating app for people in relationships has a reason to publish big numbers. For comparison, a February 2023 YouGov poll found that 34% of Americans describe their ideal relationship as something other than complete monogamy, while 55% prefer complete monogamy.
Is an open relationship legal in India?
Relationships between consenting adults aren't a crime in India. Adultery stopped being an offence in 2018, when the Supreme Court struck down Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code (more on that). Whether a relationship outside a marriage can later be used in a divorce depends on the facts, so anyone married who is considering this should talk to a family lawyer.
Marriage itself is different. Marrying a second person while your spouse is alive is bigamy, an offence under Section 82 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced Sections 494 and 495 of the IPC. Polyamory doesn't change that. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do couples make an open relationship work?
Couples who stay together through it tend to do the unglamorous work first.
- Agree on why you're doing it. Opening a relationship to fix a problem rarely works; opening one that's already secure sometimes does.
- Set rules together: who, where, how often, what you tell each other and what's off limits.
- Agree on health and safety practices, and stick to them.
- Check in regularly and treat the rules as revisable. Either of you should be able to pause it.
- Talk about jealousy early. It doesn't mean failure; it means something needs attention.