It's probably more of a cultural thing, but I have also noted that Indian femals are actually more aggressive in the work place in terms of "political" issues than their mael counterpart. they probably have to be in order to survive.
When I was in school in Kansas, the Indians would gather together doing homework by themselves, they NEVER EVER worked with someone else that aren't Indian. And, as far as I can see, they copy the homeworks from each other and turn them in that way. I think I find similar "cliques" with Chinese/Koreans too, but not to the extent with Indians.
BTW, do your Indian colleagues wear a lot of perfume? Man, one of my professors does... he drown himself in some nasty men's perfume every day, you can smell him about 100 yards away. That drives me nuts, covering body odors (mostly year-round curry) with perfume actually makes it worse.