<P> South Asia has a long history of inter-ethnic marriage dating back to ancient history . Various groups of people have been intermarrying for millennia in South Asia, including speakers of Dravidian, Indo - Aryan, Austroasiatic, and Tibeto - Burman languages . On account of such diverse influences, South Asia in a nut - shell appears to be a cradle of human civilization . Despite invasions in its recent history it has succeeded in organically assimilating incoming influences, blunting their wills for imperialistic hegemony and maintaining its strong roots and culture . These invasions however brought their own racial mixing between diverse populations and South Asia is considered an exemplary "melting pot" (and not a "salad bowl") by many geneticists for exactly this reason . However, South Asian society has never been completely free of ethnic strife and exploitation, and some groups have chosen to remain separate from mainstream social life . The divisiveness of the caste system in India has permeated to every facet of the society . Ethnic conflicts in Pakistan between Baloch, Pashtun, Punjabis, and Sindhis, are other impediments to the melting pot thesis . </P> <P> Afghanistan seems to be in the process of becoming a melting pot, as customs specific to particular ethnic groups are becoming summarily perceived as national traits of Afghanistan . The term Afghan was originally used to refer to the Pashtuns in the Middle Ages, and the intention behind the creation of the Afghan state was originally to be a Pashtun state, but later this policy changed, leading to the inclusion of non-Pashtuns in the state as Afghans . Today in Afghanistan, the development of a cultural melting pot is occurring, where different Afghanistan ethnic groups are mixing together to build a new Afghan ethnicity composed of preceding ethnicities in Afghanistan today, ultimately replacing the old Pashtun identity which stood for Afghan . With the churning growth of Persian, many ethnic groups, including de-tribalized Pashtuns, are adopting Dari Persian as their new native tongue . Many ethnic groups in Afghanistan tolerate each other, while the Hazara--Pashtun conflict was notable, and often claimed as a Shia - Sunni conflict instead of an ethnic conflict, as this conflict was carried out by the Taliban . The Taliban, which are mostly ethnically Pashtun, have spurred Anti-Pashtunism across non-Pashtun Afghans . Pashtun--Tajik rivalries have lingered about, but are much more mild . Reasons for this antipathy are criticism of Tajiks (for either their non-tribal culture or cultural rivalry in Afghanistan) by Pashtuns and criticism of Taliban (mostly composed of Pashtuns) by Tajiks . There have been rivalries between Pashtuns and Uzbeks as well, which is likely very similar to the Kyrgyzstan Crisis, which Pashtuns would likely take place as Kyrgyz (for having a similar nomadic culture), rivaling with Tajiks and Uzbeks (of sedentary culture), despite all being Sunni Muslims . </P> <P> In the early years of the state of Israel, the term melting pot (כור היתוך), also known as "Ingathering of the Exiles" (קיבוץ גלויות), was not a description of a process, but an official governmental doctrine of assimilating the Jewish immigrants that originally came from varying cultures (see Jewish ethnic divisions). This was performed on several levels, such as educating the younger generation (with the parents not having the final say) and (to mention an anecdotal one) encouraging and sometimes forcing the new citizens to adopt a Hebrew name . </P> <P> Activists such as the Iraq - born Ella Shohat that an elite which developed in the early 20th century, out of the earlier - arrived Zionist Pioneers of the Second and Third Aliyas (immigration waves)--and who gained a dominant position in the Yishuv (pre-state community) since the 1930s--had formulated a new Hebrew culture, based on the values of Socialist Zionism, and imposed it on all later arrivals, at the cost of suppressing and erasing these later immigrants' original culture . </P>

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