In the prologue of The Hunt, author Mahasweta Devi states, “Violence is justified. When the system fails – justice, violence is justified” (Mahasweta Devi). While I do not condone violent retaliation in all situations, I do believe that there are extreme cases where violence is the only answer. Self-defense is one of these cases. Even in the United States, if one is acting in self-defense, violence against one’s attacker is seen as acceptable; while there are criteria for deadly and non-deadly force used, there are situations where deadly force is condoned by the United States government. (Self-Defense (United States)). Along with self-defense, I believe that situations where the system has repeatedly failed to remove or handle an extremely dangerous threat, one could consider violence. I specify an extreme threat. By this, I mean someone who has repeatedly committed offenses that are horrifyingly inhumane and yet has been disregarded or freed by the system; for example, serial murderers, serial rapists, really serial any violent crime. The story of Usha in Half the Sky is an example of an extreme case ignored by the government and the system in which violence was the only answer. A retired judge commented on the stabbing of Akku Yadav saying, “in the circumstances they underwent, they were left with no alternative but to finish Akku. The women repeatedly pleaded with the police for their security. But the police failed to protect them” (Half the Sky 52). For the women of Half the Sky, the system had failed, over and over and over again, and had left them with no choice but to protect themselves and their daughters by taking justice into their own hands and murdering Akku Yadav (a gangster, serial murderer and serial rapist). These women did what was necessary and what was right for their extreme case.
Violence is not always the answer; in fact it is almost never the answer. However, in the most extreme cases in which the government and the system have failed to protect the innocent and the victims, sometimes, violence is the only resolution to restore peace and safety. Violence is an extreme measure of only the most extreme situations.
I suppose my follow-up question would be what do you define as an extreme situation? In this case there was physical violence, but what would you qualify as mentally destructive enough to lead to such a case? Children are bullied in America every day with no real sense of justice, so what would you believe in that case?
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