What is the purpose of the noli you tangere?

Jose Rizal wrote this novel when the Philippines was being colonized by the Spanish. It was to expose the iniquities of the Spanish Catholic priests and the ruling government.

The title in Latin means 'Touch Me Not' and refers to a quote in The Bible - John

20:17. Where Jesus tells Mary Magdalene Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my father.

Joses' ideas for the story came from reading Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin. He used his novel to show how backward, anti progressive, anti intellectual and unconducive to the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment Filippino culture was.