Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Anglo-Ind.) A brothel; also, the red light district.

1849		W.H. Jeremie Furlough Reminiscences 199: [H]e is the most regular in his payments of all my other customers, for he daily wins large sums in the Chuklas.
1893		Report Indian Cantonments Prostitution 197: As a matter of fact, however, in Nasirabad the homes of many are not in the ‘Chucklah,’ as the locality was called in the days of registration, but in other neighbourhoods, while some have two houses, one in the ‘Chuckla,’ the other elsewhere, the owner residing in either at will.
1893		Report Indian Cantonments Prostitution 233: Chakla. — The quarter in which the commoner class of prostitutes live: also applied to an enclosure occupied by them.
1893		Report Indian Cantonments Prostitution 446: There is in in each cantonment a ‘Chukla,’ a single building having series of small rooms, &c., occupied by native women and used to receive the visits of British soldiers. The Chukla was used for the visits of British soldiers only, no natives being allowed to resort to them there.
1931		G. MacMunn Religions and Hidden Cults of India 178: The normal courtezan’s trade is plied by three classes, by the children of courtezans born [...] by the gamin women of the outcaste tribes [...] and thirdly by Hindu widows, who the dreary joyless slavery prescribed for by custom, drives to escape and become denizen of the ‘chakla’.
1937		R. Reynolds White Sahibs in India 288: If young soldiers [...] recognise that convenient arrangements exist in the regimental bazaar (i.e. in the chakla, or brothel), they may be expected to avoid the risks involved in association with women who are not recognised (that is, licensed) by the regimental authorities.