It was the audience that was wrong.

The cheaper parts at the back of the tent were crowded with natives, tier above tier--and I tell you--I don't know much Hindustani, but the things they shouted made my blood boil.

After all, if you are going to be the governing race it's not a good thing to let your women be insulted, eh ?" Shere Ali laughed quietly.

He could picture to himself the whole scene, the floor of the circus, the tiers of grinning faces rising up against the back walls of the tent.
"Did the girls themselves mind ?" asked the other of the youths.
"They didn't understand." And again the angry utterance followed.

"It ought to be stopped! It ought to be stopped!" Shere Ali turned suddenly upon the speaker.
"Why ?" he asked fiercely, and he thrust a savage face towards him.
The young man was taken by surprise; for a second it warmed Shere Ali to think that he was afraid.