Hi again! @TangerineSunset
Well i would love to learn more about Australian culture, but the education boards are way too obsessed with India, believe me. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side.
Speaking of the Holla Mohalla festival, I'm going to be honest; I had no idea it even existed until you mentioned it. I literally had to google it. I don't know much about Sikh traditions, I only know the history part. Also, I live in south India, so not much of a Sikh influence here. I'm curious about how you're planning on incorporating festivals into the character or story.
So yeah, Sikh culture is out of my league (except for the warrior suggestion i gave earlier).
For Hindu culture, i can help. If you wanna be precise about your information, my suggestion is, take actual mythological characters and represent them in the most accurate way possible, in stuff like powers. This way, i don't think you'll have a problem similar to the Shiva thing. Another thing, for info, check out the Amar Chitra Katha comics. They are really popular here, and most of my current knowledge about Indian culture comes from them. They have comics on Indian religion, history, folk tales and mythology. And as far as I know, they are accurate.
I have some ideas too. So how about a Hindu girl, who's like totally badass and defies all the Puranic rules that are laid out for women. So by the Puranas, or the Vedas, which are the ancient Hindu texts, women are supposed to not fight at all, and stay at home and be good wives and mothers, while the guys are out learning sword fighting and stuff. I'm imagining a girl Hindu based warrior who's super awesome at fighting and can handle any weapon. This reminds me of a mythological story, of Vaishno Devi. So she was quite similar in skills; (in the end, she cuts off the head of her creepy stalker). So…maybe not beheading material, but definitely something close to that.
I recently read this comic called 18 Days by Grant Morrison. It's about the Mahabarat epic, in comic form. Anyway, the story didn't catch my eye, the illustrations did. They are simply wonderful. If you want some ideas, check them out. So the male characters are really well drawn, and some are also beautifully masculine, if that makes sense. The female characters, i wasn't quite happy with; mainly because none of them were on the battlefield.
I think looking at some of the illustrations will give you a clearer picture of an Indian figure.