Orientalists, Propagandists, and Ilustrados

The writings of a small group of scholars known as the "ilustrados" are often credited for providing intellectual grounding for the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Megan C. Thomas shows that the ilustrados' anticolonial project of defining and constructing the "Filipino" involved Orientalist and racialist discourses that are usually ascribed to colonial projects, not anticolonial ones. According to Thomas, the work of the "ilustrados" uncovers the surprisingly blurry boundary between nationalist and colonialist thought.