India successfully landed a craft on the moon on Wednesday, in the lunar southern pole region, just days after a Russian attempt to land ended in disaster. India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, attending the Brics summit in Johannesburg, hailed the landing as an “unprecedented moment”. For India, that is.

The Indian landing means that of the four nations to successfully land a craft on the moon three are members of Brics. Halala! Seventy-five percent of the countries with landings on the moon are from the Global South and members of Brics...