Who addressed Gandhiji as ‘one man boundary force’?

The answer is C) Mountbatten. Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, described Gandhi as a 'one-man boundary force' in 1947. Gandhi's presence in riot-hit Bengal and later in Delhi was widely seen as calming communal violence when police and military could not, and Mountbatten's remark captured that.

• Churchill (A): He opposed the grant of Dominion status and self-government to India and was never a witness to Gandhi's peace work of 1947. He had no reason to praise Gandhi this way.
• Attlee (B): As British Prime Minister he announced in February 1947 that power would be transferred by June 1948. That was a policy decision, not a remark about Gandhi's role in Partition violence.
• Simon (D): Sir John Simon headed the Simon Commission of 1927-28, which had no direct link to Gandhi's 1947 activities.

The core concept is the closing phase of the freedom struggle, the Mountbatten Plan of 3 June 1947 and the Partition violence that followed. For Mains, it links to Gandhi's Noakhali padyatra and the question of how non-violence worked, or failed, in communal conflict.

Trap: Candidates often pick Attlee because he is linked to the 1947 transfer of power. Keep the speaker separate from the decision-maker.