Don't dismiss it altogether, but tread with care.

It's good that you're considering the fact that it may be problematic, it's a good starting point.

Why do you want to use that ethnicity?

The first question I would ask in this situation is why do you want to use (for example) an Indian character? Is there some compelling reason to do so? Will the story not work if the character is not Indian?

If yes, then move onto the next point.

But if there isn't then ask yourself whether you might be creating unnecessary complications, when you could write about someone whose culture you understand better - and therefore spend more of your creative energy developing the characters and plot.

Writing a good novel is hard enough without us setting ourselves unnecessary extra hurdles.

Research

As others have said, you can make a lot of progress by doing research. I would argue that it's almost impossible to really understand a culture and recreate it in prose if you haven't experienced it directly - but I don't think it's actually impossible.

The internet could also help you find genuine Indian (or whoever is relevant) people to read over your work when it's done, in order to flag anything that is culturally insensitive, or simply inaccurate.

A friend of mine has been to the US, and obviously the US culture is quite similar to British (which is ours) but he still likes to find someone American to look over his work to catch out terminology that isn't quite right - boots and trunks and all that.

You could post on a critique group and say you are looking for fedback from people of a particular culture.

Precedents

People write about stuff they haven't experienced directly all the time. People write from the point of view of murderers, vampires, Prime Ministers.

The problem you have is that in those cases the readers won't know any better than you, but, if you're using a major, populous culture, you're more likely to make assumptions that could cause offence, or simply break the suspension of disbelief of your story.

Summary

Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to write about a culture you don't understand, partially because you're creating a lot of potential extra work and problems for yourself, and partially because of the risk of offending someone, but if it's important to you and you do it with care and respect, then I think it can be pulled off.

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