One of the things that I don’t think Ds9 talked about enough was how it was established in TNG that a lot of Bajorans didn’t even live on Bajor anymore. They were forced away by the Cardassians. Presumably many of these refugees then returned “home”, to a place many might never even have seen before, when the occupation ended. People that don’t really know Bajor that well and might have been shaped by different ideas and societies.
What does that do to a society? To be kind of fractured, in a way?
I mean sure, they are all Bajorans. But what it means to actually be Bajoran is always up for debate.
For Kira being Bajoran meant constant fighting, fear and violence. For others Bajor might have been a distant dream, a haven that your parents talked about and hoped to return to. When they did return, conditions were harsh and the new government could hardly keep everything together. Society was forever changed by the occupation. There might not have been much more on Bajor for them initially than there was in the off world refugee camps.
This was a source of possible conflict they never touched on in the show. If not conflict, it’s certainly interesting to consider how diverse the experiences of Bajorans really were.
